La Frontera

Thicket Ensconced in Snakes-mixed media photograph

Painting (I use the term painting to represent all fine art practices) is a wonderful thing because   it diminishes boundaries. The practice of painting widens and unifies my world concept, knocking down distinctions and their attendant distractions. Painting makes me more humane. A world of distinctions creates boundaries between myself and others, and boundaries further the sense of other which opens the doors of objectification. When there are racial distinctions, ethnic distinctions, gender distinctions, age distinctions et. all, a delineation between self and other is drawn and when the other is seen as outside of the self, the doors of inhumane treatment are opened. The other is now an external object and is party to a world of abuses. We begin to lose our humanity when we make distinctions. We parley away our freedoms when we create boundaries. We are no longer free to roam the wide open frontiers of existence, but are instead bound fast and held tight to the tiny hamlets of our tepid imaginations. Our minds begin to create the world rather than experience it, and we become lost in the rigid, totalitarian constructs of our corporeal templates.

As I've said before, what I like about painting is that it changes my mind. Painting unscrews the lid from the jar of world unity and allows passage to vast new territories unbridled by boundaries, borders or check points. My best work seems to be not my work at all, but rather the product of letting go of my control and letting the paint lead me. The paint undoes my judgments and makes use of things I've rejected. The paint is always teaching.

Images of Granite Mountain

 

I took an early evening walk at Granite Mountain today and was taken by the moody light and shadow-fall. A storm is incoming and the extra moisture in the air diffused the remaining daylight. The earth looked heavy and solid, a dark underling beneath the whitewashed sky, reminiscent of Italian landscapes. The Southwest skies here are extraordinary, endlessly shifting and bending the light.

These photos were taken as prototypes for drawings and watercolors, and I was able to pull out the aspects that I wanted with my computer photo program. I increased shadow and highlights while decreasing contrast, and the results are moody and smolder like the diffused light in the early Dutch master's works. During the Monsoons, I've seen light run along the ground the way a flood of water would move. As the clouds travel swiftly across the sky under the sun, waves of light and shadow pass over the earths terrain in quick succession.

I like these images because much of the detail is lost and the crispness is blunted. They look like portals to another world, like dreams in passing. They have a quiet sense, like the vesper hour that is swiftly approaching.

On a more humorous note, I also found a dog poop enso. A perfect little ring of dog poop bleached white under the Arizona sun. Enso is a common circle form seen in Japanese calligraphy. Enso's origins appear to come from Zen Buddhism, symbolizing enlightened mind. It's said that the internal state of the calligrapher is revealed in the way they paint the enso, and I suppose that, in turn, it could be said that the internal state of the dog is revealed by the way they poop the enso. And it's back to the proverbial question " does a dog have Buddha nature?"

When I Began the Vacancy Series,

 

Circus Motel-mixed media photograph

I had no idea how poignant it would be to the future unforeseen economic collapse, and subsequent mass foreclosures of American real estate. I was instead concerned with the psychological ramifications of violence, in particular dissociation, and the dissociative episodes which often occur during and after violent experiences. In these images, I used vacant dwellings as a visual metaphor for dissociative processes in which individuals disconnect, or dissociate from the current moment in time and space.

Circus Motel II-mixed media photograph

This process is often used as a defensive posture when confronted with uncontrollable and overwhelming experiences of natural or human engendered violence and can include a range of differing responses, from severe loss of attention to place, to loss of memory, to out of body experiences. Experiencing a dissociative episode during a violent or traumatic experience makes an individual more likely to develop a trauma related anxiety disorder called PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder.

Vacant Structure-mixed media photograph

According to the National Center for PTSD, over 5 million individuals will suffer from the disorder during any given year in the United States. Though the public often associates PTSD with combat veterans, victims of natural disasters and domestic violence and even small children can be affected by it. Ultimately, violence can create crippling maladies in its victims that disorder their thinking abilities, and inhibit their daily capacity to function.

Bricks and Bones Exhibition at the Prescott College Gallery.

 

San Francisco artist Tamara Albaitis is exhibiting a conceptual work at the Prescott College Art Gallery in the historic Sam Hill Warehouse, located at 232 N. Granite St. in Prescott. According to their statement, the Prescott College Art Gallery seeks to provide the Northern Arizona region with art exhibitions that aesthetically stimulate and critically engage viewers, as well as provide a diverse array of artists, emphasizing the domains of environment and social justice.

The show, titled Bricks and Bones, will run through March 24^thand features an interactive sound installation. The gallery area is entangled with wires, the wires of technology, and they enmesh the space with cobweb-like profusion. Above, in the gallery rafters, clots of black wires are massed about the timbers in a stuffed, hap hazardous way as though they were carried and deposited there by flood waters, and bodies of wires hang from the ceiling in disembodied masses.

Wires hang off the walls from disengaged stereo speakers and wires protrude through the walls, their tips uncoiled like metal root systems splayed open to the air and attached to nothing. The artist has randomly pounded small nails into white walls and then serendipitously connected some of the nails together with black wire. In the center of the gallery, a black, stereo speaker issues the sound of a heart beat and an audio track plays throughout the space. Various sounds of industry are heard, train whistles, cattle, the pounding of hammers, squeaking machinery, voices, crowds and murmurs.

The result is haunting and a bit unhinged. It's a perilous, disjointed world, well worth viewing, that aptly articulates the artists statement "I am interested in exemplifying a holistic understanding of our relationship to nature, not only on the biological and physical level, but also through complex socio-political stances that permeate the psychosis of who we are."

During the summer of 2011, my work went completely to the dogs.

 

Pele' Maps-mixed media photograph

That is to say that I began what has proven to be a relatively large and continuous body of work that presents my dogs in various attitudes and incarnations. The works on these pages represent this project, and were created by topically manipulating photographs of the subjects.

Tattooed Thicket-mixed media photograph

It's a process in which I physically add elements such as paint, or graphite to a hard copy photograph, or reduce elements from the photograph by pulling off layers of its surface. I found that I could present my pets in various, and sometimes comical ways that allowed a creative free play with the subject matter, and with the continued exploration of the transmutation themes that interest me.

Pele' as Leviathan-mixed media photographs

I often use the same photograph and alter it in different ways. Using image repeat with variation reminds me of a moving film where each frame is slightly modified from the one before it, and it bespeaks change and the passage of time, and indeed this work has become yet another manifestation of the endless play of life in change.

The Phippen Museum

The Phippin Western Art Museum

The Phippen Art Museum, located in Prescott, Arizona, has brought

 quality western artwork to the Southwest region since 1984.

 Located at 4701 Highway 89N in Prescott, the museum is

 featuring a new show titled

 Arizona’s Pioneering Women: Early Women Artists (1905-1945).

 The new show temporarily coincides with the existing

 Arizona Visions show that closes on March 11. Arizona’s 

Pioneering Women showcases the work of five women: Kate Cory,

 Marjorie Thomas, Lillian Wilhelm Smith, Jessie Benton Evans,

 and Claire Dooner-Phillips. The show, which runs through the 8^th 

 of July, is an official designation of the Arizona Centennial

 Legacy Project and highlights an historical and artistic legacy of

 women in the state of Arizona.

Looking west from the  Phippen Museum

Aside from the fine paintings, etchings, illustrations, book
 productions and porcelain design on display, each of the featured
 women contributed heartily to the history of the state and region,
 and many of these contributions gave rise to traditions still
 functioning today. Featured artist Marjorie Thomas opened the
 first artist studio in Scottsdale, Arizona, effectively marking the
 beginnings of the area’s famous art market. Clair Dooner-Phillips
  was a founding member of both the world renowned Laguna
Beach Arts Association in California, and the Mountain Artist
 Guild in Prescott, AZ. Lillian Wilhelm Smith was the first
 illustrator for the western author Zane Grey, and the only female
 to ever fill the position. She was also artist in residence at the
Arizona Biltmore Hotel, and was co-owner of a trading Post at
 Tuba City and a dude ranch in Sedona. Jesse Benton Evans
 owned the land that now houses the Biltmore and Phoenician
 resorts and she became the first senior art matron of the Phoenix
 art establishment. She was also responsible for insuring the
 superior quality of art in the Arizona State Fair during the early
 formative years of the state. Kate Cory came to Arizona in 1905
 and was the only woman to live and photograph the Hopi people
 at their Northern Arizona reservation.

The show is resplendent with lush, atmospheric landscapes depicting
 the vast and various regions of the state, as well as floral studies,
 animals and sensitively rendered native portraits. It provides a varied
cornucopia of Arizona life, its landscapes and livelihoods, during a
time period in the state that has now slipped into the historic annuals.

Thicket as a Tribal Carpet-mixed media photograph

 Artist Info

I live in Prescott, AZ and currently show and sell oil paintings at
 Wilde Meyer Galleries located in Scottsdale and in Tucson,
 Arizona. Wilde Meyer is a well established gallery serving the
 region for over 27 years. They offer an eclectic collection of art
 with an emphasis on the contemporary Southwestern genera and
they now offer an online gallery as well. I have recently sold
 work locally, here in Prescott, at the Gallery Beyond Words
 which is an established fine art gallery that offers a broad array
 of art works in differing styles. The Gallery Beyond words hosts
 monthly art shows that highlight individual artists, and juried
group shows that offer a multiple artist format. The gallery
shows the work of local and non local artists in its McCormick St.
facility.

Thicket as a Ghost, Tethered to a Cloud-mixed media photograph

I participated in Prescott College’s annual Lan Ting arts showcase in October, 2010 and 2011. The Lan Ting, named after a Chinese Taoist tradition in which artists, musicians and poets gather to show and perform their work while consuming unspecified amounts of Plum Wine, opened its premier exhibition in honor of Kate Rinzler, a batik artist, in 2010. The event continued this year, and will become an annual tradition in subsequent years at the college.

Still Life with Mission View-oil on canvas

My past exhibition venues include the Elizabeth Fortner and
 Imagine galleries in Santa Barbara, California, The Art Fix,
 Lee Lanning , Turquoise Tortoise and Poco Diablo Resort
 galleries in Sedona, Arizona, The Jerome Annual Open
 Competition in Jerome, Arizona, the Annual Woman Artists
 Competition in Prescott, Arizona and the Glendale Festival
 of the Arts in Glendale, Arizona. I continue to work and
 explore as an artist while I pursue my bachelors degree in
Technical Communication at Arizona State University. My
 work can be accessed and purchased through
Wilde Meyer Gallery and I can be reached via email at
JillGilbert@asu.edu, or Magnolia1304@cableone.com. My
 professional profile can be accessed at Linkedin.

Welcome

Enso Thicket-mixed media photograph

Fine art prints will be available soon for purchase

This blog shows my images as well as journal pages with photos, blurbs and all things relating to fine arts practice. This blog also serves as a sort of website with my artist statement and gallery contact info.

Vacancy-mixed media photograph

Within the pages of this website are the images I’ve created and they mark a place in time and a record of my life and interaction within this world. My work is a personal document of the way I see and experience events. There have been difficult forces in my life that I have been able to withstand by entering a non-verbal, non-linear way of thinking and seeing, and I hope to express this way of seeing with my work.

Three Vaqueros-oil on canvas

As an artist, I enjoy a connection with all of humanity through a long line of predecessors in my field. This ancestry goes back to the early beginnings of our existence as human beings. When I touch my brush to a canvas, I feel in me the ancient hands that took up pieces of ocher and charcoal, and rubbing them on rock, made the first marks in our collective, artistic journey. Artistically, I find myself concerned with qualities of light, surface, color, and the riotous underbelly of life itself, its energy or essence. This work is a marker of my existence in this time and place, and I hope that it is a record for those around me too, friends, family and neighbors, both human and animal. It is a quiet diary of the daily affairs of life, the interconnected images and juxtapositions of the sentient and insentient components of our world.

Crown of Flame-mixed media photograph

 Lately, I seem to be interested in the creation of painterly worlds of my choosing and not simply the recording of the environs as I see them. It’s a conjuring of sorts, an alchemic meddling in which these world components are transmuted and reiterated into the kind of places that I want to see and inhabit, and I think that it’s in the sharing and mutuality of this work that the artistic process is completed. What I like most about painting is that it changes my mind.Painting is smarter than me and it melts the hardened templates of my thinking and shows me new possibilities. It de-ossifies my mental constructs and returns me to the wide open frontier of possibilities, and I'm left swimming in a giddy ocean of infinite ways and means that are completely beyond my probable grasp.