November 2019

Third Thursday Artists’ Talk: November 21, from 7–8:30pm.

Jason Mills GREY MATTER (top image): The Grey Matter series was created as a reaction to the polarization of our society. It seems that we are living in a world of extremes, or maybe we always have and I’m just starting to awaken. This series is really me as an artist trying to start or have the conversation of how to possibly remedy this situation. Do I have the answers?… NO, but I do feel that if we can reprogram our brains to look for commonality instead of differences we could possibly make steps into a new direction. This is my attempt at a transformation from polarizing forces of light and dark to a grey area of commonality. I know, Grey is not very exciting but what if we could make that grey area more dynamic and exciting than the extremes.

From this I looked into Grey Matter in the brain and found out there are also pinks and yellows in the tissue. This is why you only see Black, White, Grey, Pink and Yellow with the occasional Purple dot. My goal is not to rid the surface of opposition because they play an important role but making sure that is not all there is.

Any kind of transformation is a little rough in the first stages but as we acclimate the hard edges start to soften. Or at least that’s what I’m striving for.

Lisa Sheirer’s “The Big Woo” (bottom image “The Big Woo #1) is a new series based upon the mysteries of nature. Is the still life really still or it merely dormant? Maybe the still life is transitioning into a new life form? Does decay emit the same level of energy as the new life? Woo? Science? Both?

These large works (144” x 60” max) each examine the meditative, but active space surrounding recognizable floral living beings. The energy lined color fields are also filled with life. By increasing the size of the wilted flower, making it human scale, the viewer is forced into the flower’s life space.

The process begins with photography or scanning of a flower. The photograph (bitmap) is then vectorized to become organic shapes of color, as opposed to square pixels. The organic shapes can then be changed, filled with color, and these shapes can also becomes lines. The lines of these shapes have been repeated and colorized to represent energy.