Artist's Statement
For the past several years I've been constructing images that force a contradiction between illusionistic space and physical space or presence. These are paintings with one voice saying, "This is what's happening", with another saying, "I wouldn't bet on it". The paintings size and materials scale the conversation, so to speak.

The references are internal and are shaped by the preoccupation of the extremities of material (wood, canvas, paint, cement, polyfilla, etc.), its behaviour and the crafting of it. External references are to the experience of the natural world and the memory, musings and analysis of it through history, science, literature and the arts.

I like to think of this activity as a kind of applied agnosticism; a possibly silly attempt at reaching for the unknowable, a peek behind the curtain, a sniff of what is beyond this material stuff. Its sitting at the window watching the disappearance of what seems to have been there, weighing the untrustworthiness of sight as connected to thought, ambition or mere cultural conditioning.

So its to begin a painting from a single entry point but as the certainty of coming to an end or exit unravels (either by materials insisting on defining their won meaning or uncooperating terms of illusion) one is forced to stop. Re-enter. Attempt a different route. In this outcome it is easy to project moments of insight or prolonged discomfort as the departure from cognitive awareness shifts to acceptance of infinite possibility.

It is in this sense I am trying to create small situations that challenge what we think we see or know.

Price Range
Jim's work ranges from $2,000 - $8,500.