James Jarvis

 James Jarvis and his American Series of photographs focused on two things.  1)  telling an experience through an image.  2)  Use frames to construct a layered composition that will lead you through said image.

American Aesthetic

For the series ‘American Aesthetic’ I wanted to explore the essence of the U.S. through not only the subjects that fitted my view of a particular locale (check my journal) but also from the nature of the composition themselves.  By subtracting the image into sections I am able to express what is a truly North American urban aesthetic: the rigid grids of urban planning and expression found in all major cities within this nation.   

It is this sense of spatiality that creates the framework for my personal stories and critic which is expressed through paint.  From each subject, I design compositions based on instinct and streamlining the number of canvas’s based on scale.  By using multiple canvases, in irregular positions, the viewer will have the sense of both boldness and detail that comes by taking a closer look at each individual piece. 

It is this aesthetic, the relation of lines and space, which I find to have inspired the drawings of iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright and abstract artist Piet Mondrian whom migrated to New York, the king of this concept in landscape form. 

This is my interpretation of an aesthetic which is strongly associated with the subject of my series, one artwork per city that I visited on my Greyhound bus trip journey.  A nine painting series.  I also take on key features of my own artistic development which relates to two styles that the United States can say they contributed towards the art discourse: photorealistic painting and pop-art.