Painting is an expression, a process of taking what is inside and portraying it in a medium visible to everyone around you. Jim Carpenter, an artist and teacher in Gainesville, FL., creates life’s most precious and intense feelings and portrays them in an interpretive form, on canvas.
Jim has been part of the Arts culture for decades and now shares his life’s lessons with the world through paintings that go beyond their titles. Through the years Jim has worked as a dancer, actor, choreographer, stage director, theatre teacher, and administrator for the fine and performing arts. Coupled with his family, his experiences growing up, and his love for art, Jim has created a showcase of his images that direct attention to life’s crucial moments.
When discussing his inspirations and painting background’s with Liberal America, Jim states:
Various themes and imagery tend to run throughout my work: the theatre, dance, spirituality, and family. My 12 years of parochial school education, my background in dance, my studies of the theatre and my career as a theatre teacher, my practice of Cosmos Qigong, and my deep love for my family all inform that imagery. I paint to explore and to celebrate these things that matter to me. It is my hope that I paint them in a way that reminds the viewers of something that matters deeply to them.
These statements exemplify the core of what is felt when viewing Jim’s paintings, personal meaning. Every painting was done through Jim’s eyes but each unfolds a flurry of emotion and meaning, different for each viewer.
Jim’s process for painting is simple and personal.
I start with a sheet of paper, three tubes of paint and some music for company. I create chaos on the paper and then through a process of layering and lifting paint I ?find? the painting, often with the sense that I have dis-covered something that was long present in the paper.
Recently Jim embarked on a personal challenge, taking 30 days, and finishing 30 paintings long since forgotten. This challenge has produced some provocative and deep interpretations of the experiences that resonate within him. These paintings, a discussion on each, and contact information can be found on Jim’s blog?and professional website.
Whether you find what the artist felt when creating his paintings, or you find a deeper meaning that touches your emotion and background, Jim Carpenter’s showcase of art, will raise the senses and create thought provoking dialogue within.
Edited/Published by: SB
