TEMPUS INCOGNITUM
University of Dayton, 2005


Time. Our ideas are linked to physical experience. Our corporeal awareness of self, and our physical perception of the world cannot be separated from the aesthetic experiences of the mind. Concept is ultimately bodily. The works presented here are in this way, if nothing else, very much physical, intended to impact the body of the mind, and the mind of the body - to be felt.

My work is conceptual realism. It is made with the understanding of the physical, mental, and emotional components of a complete aesthetic experience. Process and product merge in what I strive to make a seamless, organic, unified whole. Neither takes precedence over the other; the two are inseparable, and interdependent. While very simple, my paintings are also motivated by the pursuit of the understanding of so much complexity. They are a distillation of my experience with a subject, at a time, in a place, and in the context of the stream of my consciousness – both now and then.

Nine of the works on view here represent images derived from the live model. Each of these drawings was made in ninety minutes or less in one sitting and reveal my effort as an artist to maintain my skill and weekly discipline of drawing from observation. These small figure drawings, presented as a set in Matrix of Discipline, offer a two-fold experience; one of insight into my unselfconscious and often flawed hand-eye efforts at drawing from life, and the second of a body of work that, presented as a set, serves as a valuable counterpoint to the larger paintings.

Shift. I travel to places where I find the physical sources for the images in my work, but I do this because of something else. The imagery is peripheral. The motivation, and the true source, is internal. Places, especially ruined ones, that reveal the density of human history, and emit a powerful cultural vibe, provide for me an intoxicating dislocating experience that I have come to understand to be a healing, perspective orienting, conceptually rich creative solace.

So it is that all of these works are not so much records of objects of perception. Rather, they are externalized memory of gravid experiences at a certain place, time and frame of mind. As icons of contemplation, they become accounts of time spent in devotion to….

Time.

For most of my career my work has resulted from a cyclical process: travel to cities and ancient sites in places like Italy, Greece, and Mexico to conduct writing and photographic research; time spent back home in reflection upon the research materials and experience; and, intensive studio work for the interpretation of and expression about my aesthetic conclusions. The works shown here are the result of such a process.

Because I work in this manner, the final products of my labor come in long intervals. I am currently in the midst of the second stage of the process for another body of work that derives its imagery from cultures farther east from Greece.

Simultaneous with this process, which usually results in works of painting, I maintain a weekly discipline of drawing the live human nude model. I find that this counterbalances my other processes nicely.

Finally, almost as much as writing, digital photography is a skill I find more and more appropriate for documenting my thoughts, and plans, for works of painting and drawing. The act of instantaneous composition through the lens, and emotional reaction documented through the filter of technology, is shaping my work more and more.

Copyright © 2005 Jason Franz