A Gathering, 2000
Oil on canvas
52" x 84"
Artist Statement
"The earth and those things that grow out of it are the source of
our sustenance. The conduit of energy which is soil and sea allows us to connect
with our far away sun. Are we perhaps absorbing, along with all that is essential
to our physical well being, some sense of the poetry of that system and the
personality of the organic material that comes forth from underground? The
ability to identify with that which we do not fully understand can put us
in touch with some of the mystery of life.
Works of art are most satisfying when they operate on a number of levels and
each of those levels is ripe with association. I would like to think my own
work exists as pure painting and also functions as a portal onto the symbolic
and visionary possibilities of nature. Forms in nature, that may seem quiet
abstract at first consideration, have associations that bring us into a world
of implication and inference.
My still lifes are mostly based on natural forms, but the relationships of these elements is evocative of emotions and states of mind we do not ordinarily associate with inanimate objects. The viewer is invited into a world where a log may be brutal and overbearing, or a gourd may be a surrogate for a womb or a caress. In these paintings the erotic is acted out by material that lacks any self-awareness of its own.
Each painting's configuration exists in reality first. A sort of arranged
sculpture is created and it is at this stage of the development of the piece
when the associations are first conceived. The process of painting refines
these references and also removes the piece one or more steps from daily reality,
the object being to depict what might be, rather than simply that which is.
The human past is implicit in these pictures through reference to the history
of art and through the story of life we know is embedded in every living object.
The logical conclusion of the process is the same for all organisms; to live
implies death. The celebration of the process is, however, what these paintings
are about; the edge that is offered by their transitory nature only enriches
the dialogue. The reality of the process of passing and renewal is, in a certain
way, our most authentic solace."
--James
Dowell
James
Dowell painting Ned Rorem, from the film
Ned Rorem: Word & Music, Nantucket, August 1997
Photo by John Kolomvakis
James Dowell
was born in Greenville, Texas and studied at the Southern Methodist University
in Dallas, earning a BFA in 1972. He continued his studies at the University
of Iowa, earning both a MA and a MFA and since 1975 he has lived in New York
City, while maintaining a residence in Dallas. He has exhibited his work in
numerous one person and group shows since the 1970s and is currently represented
by Valley House Gallery in Dallas.
San Angelo Museum
of Fine Arts
One Love Street
San Angelo, Texas 76903
Fax: (325) 658 - 6800
Phone: (325) 653 -
3333
e-mail:
museum@samfa.org