BE THEREThe Acadia PaintingsPresented by Viridian Artists, Inc. October 17, 2006- November 4, 2006Reception: October 21 - 6:00 pmJack Bolen
With a sense of emotional intensity that springs from direct observation of the environment, Bolen's rock formations in part arise from much time spent on the coast of Maine's Acadia National Park. Seeing our environments (both physical and emotional) change in subtle and often mysterious ways, the artist brings this concern to the canvas. His creative search is one focused on rediscovering through the painting process an array of environmental phenomena and the transformation that occurs because of time's passing. Bolen has translated these phenomena into his paintings as he merges past and present, the real and the imagined. These are not paintings of rocks per se, but of a sense of rock that is sometimes warm and sensual to the point of becoming flesh. Or, cold and foreboding as if the pieces with their cracks & crevices were but chards and remnants of times long gone. With the edges of his almost real imagery drifting into pure unformed color and small rectangles added in corners and edges, it's as if the artist is making a note for future reference, a code only he understands but one which will be used to remind us of things we can't remember that have long ceased to exist. Notwithstanding their unique and original color, his paintings and painting process expostulate beliefs he has about our world here on earth. In part, his paintings refer to the mystery of a given time and place and what had once occurred in another time and place and how the two interact and change one another. The work doesn‚t bring those concerns to the consciousness of the viewer, but leaves only allusions with a deeper purpose, so that the viewer is free to take his clues and follow wherever they might lead. Art critic Ruth Bass says in a catalog of his work, "In Bolen's paintings, there is no hint of the original scale, no point of reference. Instead disembodied images re-emerge in a new context, rich in visual ambiguities and resonant with metaphoric connotations." In a recent article, writer Ed McCormack delves deeply into Bolen's imagery stating "the subtlety of these compositions imbues them with a power of their own, a haunting sense of silence, suggesting ancient mysteries unearthed by a deeply intuitive, exquisitely refined contemporary sensibility."
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