 |
|
JW: I have built my business by working with lifestyle companies which have high emotive content…things that need to be felt, that create an experience.
Initially, I felt a giant gap between what I do and what Mythic Imagination does; I did not see a connection. Naïveté is always close by with me. I look at something and then one day I realize I have a connection.
This connection happened when I started writing for the second O.M.Norling series. I realized that what I was doing was pure mysticism, although lots of it was rooted in reality.
My grandfather, Red Wilson, was the grandson of O.M. Norling and a conservative farmer in the Mid – West. I pulled from him what I call Mid-West mysticism (from old Europe) that included “wart – knots.” Growing up, if we had a wart, he took us to the basement, tied a knot, a special knot in a string. He put it somewhere, and the wart would go away. He also had ways to stop bleeding in both people and animals.
So, I’m fascinated by these mysteries, and I started to make the connection with the old stories. They really are part of our lives. This had been part of me, I just had not recognized it.
MD: Back to your art…
JW: It’s worth noting, as far as the artwork itself, the written story is important, but I’ve never wanted it to overshadow the art.
Page 3 | 3
It comes down to this: all the paintings are stories of feminine strength and vulnerability. I think on a spectrum, strength and vulnerability create the beauty in women…and far exceed what you would find in masculinity. Strength and vulnerability encompass so much and when you put them together, grace and elegance come in. It’s really the extent of the spectrum. Masculinity has such a focus…it occupies such a smaller range of the spectrum. My use of animals and static positions of forces and lines are all placed as indications of masculine influence and interaction…and some of it is threatening and some of it is non- threatening.
MD: This takes us back to Amy…
JW: She is an art history major. She is my inspiration, my rock, my critic and my praiser!
MD: Are people buying your paintings?
JW: All my paintings are sold, and I just completed a commission. Every year I donate a painting to my sons’ schools’ fundraisers and I am also donating a painting for the High Museum’s fundraiser.
MD: Let’s discuss your process some more.
JW: I do all the drawings and form a series. The simplest way I can put it is that everything starts with writing. The geese, the lion, all are metaphors for what I’ve written; I pick what’s striking in the writing.
MD: Do you paint from dreams?
JW: There is a subconscious element….stepping into the feminine mind and assembling positives and negatives, fears and strengths…and defining those with animals: the powerful grace of a horse, the pin -pricking presence of a woodpecker, the aggression of a lion. You start to position those in a way…you have powerful balance. Then, you place four woodpeckers on a lion and you’ve created something new…you have this agitant placed on top of aggression. Just like chemistry, you have something new: the aggression is in balance, in check…or distracted…and so by doing this, you can change the presence of a lion…balancing on an umbrella, it becomes more a protective force.
So, that’s the fun…of creating the visual…the static tension within the composition… that is decipherable if you, the viewer, choose to take on the challenge!
Page 3 | 3