WSAW Thursday June 13th, 6-9pm
Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe presents:
Jack Schursky
As a lifetime swimmer, sailor, and cancer sign, I bond with water. After traveling west, I found a new appreciation for the mountains, and their bond with the sea. Waves turn into mountains, mountains turn into creatures, and all things dissolve into the sky. Moving and repeating colors and patterns represent how all things are connected in the grand scheme. ‘Dock Proph’ gives this new body of art it’s own name to teach and heal the viewer through a visual alone.
Born in PA, raised in NY, Jack Schursky received his Bachelors of Arts in Studio Art in 2009 at SUNY Stony Brook and Masters of Art Education in 2011 at Hofstra University in Long Island. Since, Schursky has taught science through outdoor education in the mountains of California, as well as marine conservation through artwork at the Seattle Aquarium. His main influences are Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne, and recent addition of Salvador Dali and Dr. Seuss.
Jesse Schwartz
Jesse Schwartz was born in 1973 in rural Washington State. After graduating high school, he traveled across the country to attend the Art Institute of Boston, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He double majored in Illustration and Fine Arts, with an emphasis in Painting. During the course of living in New England, he also spent a semester at Rhode Island School of Design, and also studied for a quarter at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. After graduation he moved to New Mexico, and after two years returned to Washington.
Although he has used many mediums, oil is now the medium of choice. Before a stroke is applied, the composition is studied. Once the composition has been chosen, the forms are loosely applied with a wash in just two or three values with the main concern being shape. The next layers refine form, hue and value, while maintaining brush strokes. “It is after all a painting, I see no point in trying to hide the marks. They can be the difference between a good painting, and a great painting that has an energy and life of its own.”
The landscape provides endless inspiration, whether it’s a sunrise over a lake, or an abandoned building. Nature produces a never ending variation of shape, color and texture. Even painting the same scene over and over can change over the time of day/different seasons/weather.
The still life can be viewed in a few ways. You can just view it purely aesthetically, or read it as symbolism. The apple representing sin, fall from grace, earthly pleasures, knives betrayal, and so on. The still life has really endless possibilities. Food can be very evocative of memory. It is universal, so everyone can relate to it in some form or another. A picture of food can also produce synesthesia, you see an orange and feel an acidic tingle in the back of your mouth. See a glass of wine and remember a romantic evening, or maybe getting violently ill. And thus the painting of the everyday becomes intensely personal.
