Candace, I will also email you a copy of this: Juror’s Statement: Reaction Dear Participants, First a big “THANK YOU” to Candace Loheed and to the Staff and Directors of Gallery Route One for putting your confidence in me as your juror for this year’s show. It was an honor to be asked. Here are some thoughts — and a bit of my background — to help you understand how I made my selections. I am a painter myself, and my studies at both Stanford and UC Berkeley between 1975 and 1982 deeply influenced the ideals and values that I carry forward today. In particular, my studies with Nathan Oliveira helped me understand that representation and abstraction are both very powerful traditions, and that working between the two is as well. I like a statement that Peter Selz, one of Nathan’s dearest friends, often made: “Art has many faces.” So, in looking over the work that was presented to me I tried to choose strong examples of both representational and abstract work. I also decided to jury as many artists as I could into the show, so I took one work by each artist rather than showing multiple works by any one artist. I looked over the images at least three times each, and then let a day go by. Maybe it sounds eccentric, but I am a big believer in intuition, and after “sleeping on it” I would get up in the morning and note images that were one my mind when I woke up and sipped my coffee. I chose images that I thought showed confidence, individuality and authentic feeling. I know, it is hard to judge those things, but I looked and thought hard about these qualities. Jurying is a very subjective act, and it goes without saying that Reaction shows my personal biases. To put it another way, I tried to avoid thinking about what is currently in vogue and just asked myself “would I want it in my own collection?” Given the title of the show, I guess that I allowed myself to “react” to each work on a very personal level to see if it resonated. Now that the show is on the wall I would love to hear your reactions. If you find the show pleasing, eclectic and strong I have done my job. Sincerely Yours, John Seed
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 18:13:15 +0000
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