JAMES REED PROCESS: ACCOMPLICE 2023

ACCOMPLICE April 2023 Gallery 114

Accomplice is given form and content by these visual artworks and the participation of the viewer in the creative process.

I was challenged by the 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional visual design elements that I used in creating these compositions when I chose certain materials and objects to work with. However , with these challenges I was able to discover form and content that I was not yet conscious of.

I was drawn to specific materials, techniques, methods, and a few found objects. The materials include lime, goat hair, ferric concentrate, canvas, oak, oak leaves, base piano chords, steel, plastic, paper, and graphite. I worked in the methods and techniques of drawing, frottage, stenciling, embossing, painting, sculpting, molding, casting, welding, and installation.

Two of the found objects are a Coleman cooler and a funnel. To engage with these objects, I cut the cooler up and then reconstructed it with the funnel inside of it. I then made drawings exploring its form and made a mold of it. The casting of the mold consisted of lime, goat hair, canvas, oak leaves, and a base piano chord. I called this cast object “Not, not.”
I then made experimental process drawings using frottage. The result was chance line qualities, fragmentation, and repetition. The hard-edge contours and rigidity of the form was altered. The depth of the pictorial space flattened with the graphite rubbings I made from this result. I saw “not, not” in a completely different form and content.

I expanded on these forms by working with painting, sculpture, and installation as an examination of the qualities that resulted from each of these media. “Not, not” became the basic form and determined the size of many of the images. When I used “Not, not” in a 2-dimensional stylized form, as a template for replication, it resulted in the 2-dimensional spatial potential to flatten and become uniform. There is a certain amount of visual complexity that evolves from patterning. It becomes even more complex and challenging with the texture of the lime and the ferric concentrate.
This complexity generated further potential for my engagement and led to new emerging images.
These images orientated the choice I made of techniques and methods as I continued.

I worked with what I was drawn to, and in utilizing visual art making processes, “Accomplice” was discovered.

Artist Statement by James Reed ,edited by Ruth Ross
March 2023