Artists would like to believe that painting is primarily about the hands on activity, raw and physical. We try to minimize the intellectual weight involved, in lieu of the assign of passionately pushing paint around a canvas. Maybe so. Maybe not.
I will be mounting a show tomorrow afternoon that is rooted in scholarship and not in my usual venues of teaching or commerce. It is going up as one of many events in an academic showcase for our new president’s inauguration and will remain hanging in my university library for the month.
The pieces I selected were chosen to accompany and illustrate a dialogue about the importance of research to the success of the visual arts. The topic is somewhat controversial but it has been good for me to articulate some of the internal conversations this year has prompted. No doubt, the coming together of the painting in the field and the mental processing will affect my work as I come into the studio this fall.
Kelly E. James 