Monday, May 5, 2008

Jon's Statement

The work stems with the wonderment of childhood. Growing up in an urban environment gave me a deep appreciation of nature when I first encountered it. One of the first family trips I remember was going to the botanical garden, and seeing the explosion of color in the springtime. It was also in the fifth grade when I went to an overnight camping trip where I came face to face with it. Unbridled nature, left on its own, an environment teeming with life. My friends and I had this sense of awe mixed with a dose of fear of the mysterious unknown we might encounter lurking in the woods. As an artist I observe how biological forms use mechanisms to propagate. Some examples are how plants encase its reproductive seed in layers of sheathing, patterns found in rice fields on steeped hills, and the gills of mushrooms capture my curiosity and become a striking tapestry to me. These desires that are evoked in nature influence my making. I want to also ask the viewer to look at their surroundings once again and question the way we perceive the world around us. What is this attraction that makes me want to decode or make sense of the way nature speaks in the way it grows.

In making sense of our world we look for visual cues that are familiar to us. Part of my curiosity in looking at patterns found in biology is unveiling the layers of information contained in it. My work looks at how nature is constructed from many parts that make a whole. I am interested at how this structure is dynamic and influenced by its various segments that dictate its form. The work has mathematical principles at work in the way nature grows and the mesmerizing rhythmic repetition. These progress in an algorithm that is inherent in its reproduction, forming a unified system of biological patterning.

What is the seduction of nature that causes us to stop and investigate? There is this odd attraction with the haphazard that we cannot encapsulate yet we attempt to do so. Our brain leans towards order and guides us to perceive the world to make sense of it. By this reason we are beholden to nature because it is infinity within our realm of experience. We seek out its mysteries because it gives us a look into the eternal as life continues to perpetuate itself.