James Walker - June 5, 2009
Friday, June 5th, from 6pm – Midnight
National Harbor, MD
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Local artist James Walker’s insightful and honest new works reflect on the current moment and the fleeting nature of time. The exhibition will include paintings, photographs, books and collage works that together are a collection of moments, insights and ideas that evolve from Walker’s constant documentation of the world around him. He describes his work as focused on the ideas of living in the present moment and never taking anything for granted. Walker’s works strike a deeply personal chord leaving viewers both lost in the moment and somehow more aware of the present at the same time. |
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James Walker’s Artist Statement:
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…..I never made a conscious decision to become an artist, it’s something I’ve always done for as long as I can remember, I make pictures and draw and paint and collage debris and objects as intuitively as possible and I’ve never specialized in anything except making the best art that I can and I don’t often think of myself as an artist but more of a sociologist or philosopher…..my background is in photojournalism and I take a documentary approach to everything I do with my work and I feel that my most successful images are ones that develop as a natural extension of existing |
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….all of my amalgamations are nothing more than a feverish attempt to create some sort of semi-tangible cohesion out of everyday experiences through obsessive collection of imagery and stories and adventures that I compile as the proof of life lived to bring a general awareness that every second exists for just that and at the same time facilitating this idea the only way I can, through my artwork, all of it being the cliff notes to my inclusion in this maelstrom of existence, examining the fact that everything is in a constant state of fluctuation, deterioration, and reconstruction, never lasting more than two blinks of an eye which may be why humans invented the concept of measuring time while we fruitlessly strive to sustain and avoid any contact with the inevitable thermodynamic deconstruction of our selves and everything we see as real and I’m enamored with the idea that everything is beautifully entropic and nothing will ever retain, permanently, its current physical form, |
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which is why I try be mindful of the present moment, the only thing that is not simulacra, without which we would have neither the future nor the past (both of which carry significance only as stubborn illusions), and with the realization that the present moment is the only thing that truly exists I gather information and juxtapose found treasures all decomposing and beautifully dancing in wonderful objectification with images in various states of archival-ness (frequently subconsciously depicting all too clearly our own frailty taken for granted) and I am helping to organize an introspection and focus that is easily lost in the cellularphonic espresso-paced world that I am also contently enveloped in, intensifying awareness of the swirling cacophony and freneticism of it all and all of the feelings and emotions colliding, and as I work I just let the chaos flow without judgment, acknowledging its existence as neither good nor bad, just that it is there, with hopes of creating nothing that is stale but instead just as alive as the subjects it depicts...|
Special Musical Performance by Once Okay Twice
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Most people like to do things once, we like to do them TWICE! Join the never ending party that is Once Okay Twice…