2008 Artist Application

Judge Joanna Clark

JUROR STATEMENT

It is a pleasure and a privilege to be a juror for a show like Thornbrook. It is a small and select show in a beautiful setting, and It just gets better and better every year. It is not easy to select from work that is all marvelous, so I look for a couple of things in particular. A kind of bottom line for me is how a work is made. If the idea is terrific but the craftsmanship weak, I pass that work by, though reluctantly. Fortunately at a show like Thornbrook, craftsmanship is generally at a very high level. That leaves image. I am looking to be amazed by beauty, or rarity, or by an interesting concept or unusual way of making something. I try hard not to let my own personal preferences rule, but to let each work speak for itself. I look forward to seeing the work in this show.

Biography

I was born in the company hospital an open pit copper mine in the hills of western New Mexico near the little town of Santa Rita. I went to college in Las Cruces, New Mexico at New Mexico State University where I received the BA and MA degrees. Later I studied printmaking - relief and etching - at the Corcoran Museum School in Washington D.C. and printmaking (etching and lithography) and sculpture at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, Md, where I received the MFA degree in sculpture and printmaking. After the MA, I taught at New Mexico State Universtiy, then Wright Junior College in Chicago, then recently retired after teaching in the Art Department of Santa Fe Community. Often in my own sculpture and prints I use imagery from several areas I have been interested in all my adult life, particularly archeology and anatomy. I love the shapes of bones, and I like the exoticism and mystery of ancient artifacts.

Judge Jim Draper

Artist Philosophy

A friend told me once, "What you do is paint the way Florida feels." I had never really thought of it that way, but now it makes sense to me. Even though I paint landscapes and selected elements that appear in the natural environment, I am not so interested in a realistic replication of a particular scene. Instead, what fascinates me is the drama of the visual experience. Poetic surprises, physical anomalies, poignant juxtapositions and inadvertent theater are much more interesting to me than a rendering of a postcard-perfect scene. In finding my visual voice, I look to the annals of the history of art. I sample many movements, styles and periods from cave paintings to post-modernism. These various philosophies are visible in the way I approach painting. For example, the painting Edisto is inspired by Campin’s “Annunciation”.

The culture and mythology of the South have proven highly influential in my work. While being inspired by natural wetlands, palm trees, water birds, sand dunes and prairies, my work denies the tradition of the passive landscape. Instead, I like to consider human interaction on an emotional level with the elements of nature. The series “Healing Palms”, in essence is a portrait of palm trees, and is based on the tenacious attitude of the southern palmetto. These plants, viewing them as one would view a Byzantine Icon, can symbolize the human ability to be healed by accepting one’s place in the natural world, instead of being dominate of nature.

Biography

Jim Draper grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the geographical center of the state and midpoint between the birthplaces of Eudora Welty, William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams. He attended the University of Mississippi where he earned a BFA in 1974. He received a MFA from the University of Georgia at Athens in 1978 then lived and worked in Beaufort, SC, before making his home in Jacksonville, FL.

Draper’s work is a direct extension of his life’s philosophy and values. His motivation is to open windows to another world. “Art takes us through the gamut of emotions, and it’s in these emotions where the genius happens. Art is like a magic act. One takes nothing and makes something out of it. It’s my vehicle for taking people out of the mundane to another place.”

Draper maintains a studio in Jacksonville, Florida. His work has been the subject of countless gallery exhibitions, and today his work can be found in hundreds of corporate as well as private collections. Draper Studios is now publishing digital archival prints that reproduce his original work.

Draper is represented exclusively by Signature Art Group, 2782 Capital Circle N E, Tallahassee, FL 32308.