26 Jun John Brownfield 6/25 – 7/16
Reception Saturday, July 9, from 2-4 pm
The works I have chosen to display here are representative of several periods and themes. I suppose I might be considered inconsistent in theme and also in the variety of materials and subject matter. One thing I have always played with are self portraits and the ones on display vary in content from goofy playful to somber introspection. The black box “Seeker” for example expresses the internal struggles of living, aging, and making sense of one’s existence. Another box work piece ”Prisoner of Circumstances” also deals with an inside and outside life. The Image of the woman is an oil painted copy of a portrait of a 15th C woman of high status; she shows all the trappings of wealth. clothes, ornament and having the best artist in the land paint the portrait. Yet there is this melancholy vacant look . She lives in a grand house but in my piece it is a trap of nails. A lot of my pictures invite interpretation, even the comic ones. The most recent work and what I am particularly interested in right now is in working an architectural feel into my objects. Plaster is becoming a favorite medium for me. I want to make pieces that evoke association with ancient walls like what I saw in Italy and Greece and express a feeling of living antiquity, wall fragments. I am using imagery, subject matter even, drawn from classical art. I guess I am an anti-modernist. I certainly have failed to gain any fame in the chic glossy mag art world. And I stopped caring about that long ago. I have not had to sell art to make a living and I have the luxury of making art only to please myself. But there are folks who genuinely enjoy what I do and I hope you, the reader, will join my small circle of fans. I have been quite lax about keeping a mailing list and am resolved to mend my ways. Please let me know if you care to be a founding subscriber to my now-forming mailing list.
John Brownfield, emeritus professor University of Redlands.
BFA Illinois Wesleyan University , MFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago