Object as image and identifier is the creative impetus of my artwork. My mediums are graphite, oil paint, and the computer. My primary style in all mediums is representational. In all of my work, the viewer completes the circle of content. Without the viewer, the work would be about... nothing. Contextually, they address the theory of interpretation, working with subject matter, or conditions, that create specific symbolic communicative reactions. The pieces often ask the questions inherent to the theory of interpretation, Why do we read an image in a specific way? How does image placement communicate specificity? Or does It (Isaac Asimov, Understanding Physics)?

Bullet Loader, done in graphite on mylar, is taken from a series that began in 2001. Through the course of creating paintings and computer graphics, I always return to this series. It stabilizes me. Which is pretty much how I feel about drawing in general. There is something so honest about creating art using nothing more than a No. 2 pencil.

In 2001, I began placing these drawings within similar or dissimilar antique, found or recycled objects; creating based on my own theory that the self interprets reality, art, and the virtual world... relying on its own narrative to do so.

At the inception of this series, I was also working on another body of work titled Transitions In Time. Contextually the images used within these sixteen large pieces (a range of sizes around 5 feet by six feet), done in oil and graphite, were about many things. The context of the medium specifically addressed the hierarchical system that exists within the world of fine art: Painting Before Drawing.

These multi-layered surfaces were marked on with graphite and paint. If the yoke was created in paint, the collar was created in graphite; and vise-versa. All the surfaces are wood. I manufactured these intentionally heavy, awkward, impossible-to-hang pieces to give them that macho stability of a Painting. Flipping their yokes and collars for content specificity placed both mediums on the same playing field. I solved the problem: Drawing = Painting / Painting = Drawing.

I cannot say enough about the importance of drawing in my life. I create graphics using the computer. I create modular oil paintings on wood panels which, when hung linearly, exceed 50 running feet. Still, there is no medium as honest as a No.2 pencil. So I continue this on-going series.

born: Dearborn, MI

education

Western Michigan University, BFA, Studio Art
Wayne State University, MFA, Painting

selected awards/honors

Creative Artists Grant Recipient, Arts Foundation of Michigan, 1998 ($8,000.00)
Michigan Individual Artist Grant Recipient, Michigan Council for the Arts, 1992 ($10,000.00)
Sixteen Minute Outstanding Video Award (IMCA)

selected publications

The Gallery Journal, Marygrove College, Detroit, MI, Vol. Seven, Number One, 2008
The Healing Work of Art, Beale, Graham W.J., Detroit, MI, p. 57, 2007
Message and Medium, Luckey, Jim, Detroit Artists Journal, p.5, 1992
Transitions in Time, Oakland University Art Gallery, p 1-12, 2001

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Lynn Galbreath and Andrea Eis, The Gallery at Marygrove, Marygrove College, Detroit, MI, 2008
Beyond the Border, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Association, Birmingham, MI, 2005
Illusive Landscapes, District Arts, Birmingham, MI, 2004
Ten Paintings One Year, Suites of Governor John Engler, Detroit, MI, 2000

selected group shows

The Chrysler Group Exhibits, Chrysler Corporation, Southfield, MI, 2009
Woman Image Woman, The Scarab Club, Detroit, MI, 2008
Image and Text, Oakland University Art Gallery, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, 2008
Femmes Detroit, Ceres Gallery, Chelsea, New York, 2004