JOHN CONWAY

Statement



I was born in the small steel town of Dunkirk N.Y. in 1949 to two people who worked very hard and art was the furthest thing from their mind. I’m always interested in what happened in 1949 politically and in the arts; it appears that 1949 was a very dynamic year.

I was 10 or 11 when I was given my first drawing set. I knew then that the act of making marks was something special. At 14 I took my first art class, Miss Schober was the instructor. She left a lasting impression on me that any thing was possible if you are diligent. At 17 I was chosen to be part of a group of young artist hopefuls representing western New York High Schools at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y. The piece was a collage titled “Biology”. After graduation in 1967 I had hoped to attend a fine arts school, but Mom and Dad thought that commercial art was more appropriate. Being somewhat rebellious I left home via the United States Air Force to “see” the world. What an eye opener it was, first Texas, Colorado and Kansas then Vietnam, Thailand, Spain, Turkey with lots of stops along the way.

I’ve been told that this current body of work has an industrial feel about it. One cannot help being influenced by what surrounds one. Also I’ve delegated the paintbrush to a secondary role. I prefer to use tools, knifes, scrapers, ect. to work acrylic paint into the textures I find fascinating. I believe in the principles of design. There was a time when I was a very traditional painter and worked very hard at perfecting my craft, but slowly over time I found I was better able to engage the viewer’s imagination and develop a dialog between the work and the viewer through non-traditional devices. I have a penchant for the abstract. It is possible that the viewer sees some thing other than what I had intended and that’s OK. What is important is that I try to strike a chord that mobilizes the viewer’s emotions.