Statement
What you see on this site is a summarization of my undergraduate work at the University of North Texas between 2007 and 2010. Since this time I have relocated to Oakland, California where I am discovering the place for art within communities.
This is a great contrast to the work on display here where each piece is only accompanied by others like it. What I now seek to understand and explain is the responsibility (and power) that art carries in the context of community. What exactly can art do? More specifically, what can art do when unlike people take hold of it? The underlying foundation to this discussion is an exploration of the cross section between aesthetic and ethics.
These two topics, though seemingly separate, have much in common and have history of being discussed at length. Though I intend to provide some of these resources to those who are interested, the greater challenge is to match a theoretical basis for art enriching the lives of people living in communities with real life projects where it actively takes place.
Call this an experiment. I am living in Oakland where the relationship between art and community is thriving. I am a collaborator with those who create and enjoy it greatly. Please keep an eye on this website as it molds to include these themes.
Abstraction is a general way of describing the aesthetic of what I produce. Beyond this, my work is actually a form of realism. The viewer is an active element in that they produce meaning, linking formal elements to both what they see in the natural world and emotions felt internally. As the creator, I am mostly concerned with this interaction and that simple act of creating. Yet, as the work progresses, a story unfolds uncovering both formal and conceptual themes.
The primary (and developing) conceptual theme my work engages is the enigma of space. From this perspective, my work can be viewed as a metaphor for an objective reality clouded by paradox; that is, the underlying “stuff” governing existence operates both within and outside the human psyche.
Definition is the historic human quest, taking form in both religion and the sciences. It is my belief that there is beauty in the enigma, which is neither static nor easily defined. Rather, it is dynamic, constantly between two points, interweaving with the human experience of time and space.
col·or Pronunciation: \ˈkə-lər\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English colour, from Anglo-French, from Latin color; akin to Latin celare to conceal — more at hell
Date: 13th century
1 a : a phenomenon of light (as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects b (1) : the aspect of the appearance of objects and light sources that may be described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light sources <the changing color of the sky>; also : a specific combination of hue, saturation, and lightness or brightness <comes in six colors> (2) : a color other than and as contrasted with black, white, or gray
con·science Pronunciation: \ˈkän(t)-shən(t)s\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin conscientia, from conscient-, consciens, present participle of conscireto be conscious, be conscious of guilt, from com- + scire to know — more at science
Date: 13th century
1 a : the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good b : a faculty, power, or principle enjoining good acts c : the part of the superego in psychoanalysis that transmits commands and admonitions to the ego
zachcotham@gmail.com / 510.457.1009