LandEscape Art Review | Page 83

Jeremiah Douglas Stroud

LandE scape

CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW meanwhile , would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up ? In particular , would you tell our readers something about the evolution of your style ? In particular , are your works painted gesturally , instinctively ? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes from paper to canvas ?
Everyday , I try to catch as much of the news as possible . I don ' t just rely on mainstream media , but also news sources with credible writers . This feeds my imagery , my motives , and my sense of duty to question what I am being told . After , I tend to listen to news podcasts while I pull the skin off of the oil paint left in cups so I can continue working on projects I had to step away from the day before . Projects come into being very intuitively , while some are planned out . This allows a flexibility for me to work on something , while letting my mind wander until another new idea pops into my mind . I don ' t like the word “ style ”, it is kitsch . My work has been a struggle , constantly trying to build and find its ' own vocabulary . I went through every genre in the Art History books , but within the past year I realized that I needed to just make work and it will speak for itself . Now , I do notice similarities with artists like Daniel Richter and Kerry James Marshall , but that is just in application , not theory . So , I do use the language of European Figure painting and Abstraction ; meaning , there is a balance of gestural strokes and slow glazing processes . Sometimes , I will project photographs and maintain the sharpness , to contrast the gestural brushstrokes from memory and imagination .
For this special edition of LandEscape we have selected Whispering Secrets of The Present to The Past Self , an interesting transdisciplinary research project that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article . What has at once captured our attention of your captivating investigation about the relationship between your painting and the actual places you painted is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics : while walking our readers through the genesis of Whispering Secrets of The Present to The Past Self , would you shed light to your main sources of inspiration ?
Most of my imagery starts off with photos from my childhood , items I remember laying around my grandparent ' s house , and political phenomenoa . Over time , I have come to realize I consider the material , a dream , and the figures that become portrayed , are myths . As I make work , I try to mythicalize family or those close , and by proxy myself . This is done when you look back at the history of figure painting ; David ' s Napolean , is a great example of immortalizing and mythicalizing a human . However , I believe normal Midwesterners deserve the same privilege . Also , Honesty has evolved in my work by showing both sides of the middle-class ; hard workers , loyal to their country , but also , fanatic individuals that form parties becoming a psychological danger to American
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