| Artwork: Imaja |
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artwork | slide show | about the artist | web and print design |
Artist’s Statement
In my work, I create a setting like the natural world, as in an undomesticated tangle of plants. There is no hurry, and one can appreciate the variety of natural forms. Plants weave together a breathing layer of the earth. I am astonished by the endless variety of shapes in the natural world.
As I create a picture, I am inventing a system of forms that can live together. Often my work avoids focusing on a single idea. I am trying to create work that can be interpreted in several independent ways. Several different directions might be pursued simultaneously, sometimes within one work.
There are several shapes that reappear in different pictures which are not conscious symbols of anything. I do have little emotional scenes happening with the shape, direction, and intersection of various lines. These are often unpredictable and surprising, like conflicts or explorations.
In some works, I use several layers. These can work independently of each other. They are like different interpretations of the whole picture. I like the feeling of looking through sheets of rain from the foreground to the background. I also like the sensation of looking at a variety of plants, seeing through the leaves and branches of one and seeing others. It's a wonderful experience to focus on different layers in this deep world.
The way we view symmetrical forms as humanoid forms or animal forms or plant forms fascinates me. There is a whole class of shapes that I call lizards that are simply symmetrical about a line. People try to make other animals and plants like them, while I am trying to make myself more like an animal or plant.
A lot of repetition and sequence happens in my work, which probably has to do with musical ideas. Melodic shape and line shapes have very similar properties for me. I am also trying to make correspondences with color and harmony and tone-color characteristics.
I developed some custom software as tools to realize my artwork as animations. These computer animations reflect some of the shape and textural ideas of my works on paper, animating aspects of color, shape, and the process of painting for the viewer.
Current work involves black and white pen and ink drawings, paintings, and video collage.
Greg Jalbert
1244 Hearst Ave. #7
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA
Tel: (510) 526-4621
E-mail:
Web: http://www.imaja.com
