JIM FARLEY
Artist statement

I am self-taught. I have been drawing and painting since childhood.

My paintings are not decorative. I do not aim to adorn. To be frank I would like them more to seduce. I like the medium for itself, the smell, the texture and plasticity of oil paint. I work it with my fingers onto the surface. I draw with my fingernails. I seek the light through transparency by sanding, scratching, scraping the surface to find the white of the background. At times I reach for a classical approach and use white to highlight.

I forge my own artistic knowledge through reading and pursuing my own personal interests; where I find my greatest inspiration: Vincent Van Gogh, Diego Velasquez, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Max Beckman, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Jim Dine, Willem de Kooning, Lucian Freud, Leon Golub, Tom Thomson. Certain photographers: Helmut Newton, Jan Saudek, Elmer Batters, Jeff Wall. I do not imitate them and I don’t attempt to resemble them, this would be neither honest nor interesting. I study them and I go on to other things. My paintings are studies. I am not seeking a recipe, one to repeat.

No affiliation with any group. Few contemporaries, some interest me of course but I have difficulty with the conceptual approach, which is to put the ideas before the product. I myself like the product and it is my belief that if we try too hard to find the idea, we risk filming ourselves under the shower with a chimpanzee.
I have had great moments of productivity, as well as nonproductivity. I've worked as a taxi driver, a warehouseman, distributor, semi trailer driver, construction worker; I have had a lot of experience and have liked it. I have also had the opportunity to run a business and to know the other social and economic side of things, which is useful for putting roles into perspective. I liked that too.
I erred often, but do not particularly regret it. To give you an idea about it you can take for granted that Jackson Pollock had a very quiet life compared to mine.

All this is part of the artist’s baggage. As for me, I put it all in my painter’s suitcase.

I paint what I am. I do it by painting nature, women and sometimes self-portraits.

 

Jim Farley
Winter 2009