jongoldman 12sidneystreetwoodsholema02543
http://thoughtballoonmedia.com j@goldmanarts.com
new works In terms of subject matter, I vary between a surrealist combination of images and formalist studies of place. I also approach the oil work with little expectations in terms of what I am trying to depict. That way, when something appears out of the paint, I can enhance it, and bring it out. Listening to the paint and leaving my eye open to possibilty is what I really look for. The Corn Crib is an example of the more surreal, dream like work. Most people regard it as an out house, which only serves to underscore how removed we are from non-developed living.. There are hidden characters, ďŹ gures and other forms in this piece. One is a faint resemblance to the dance pioneer, Merce Cunnigham.
goldmannew paintings
Corn Crib 52”x 48” egg tempera with an oil ground on canvas. (In the collection of John and Ann-Leith Hill.)
process Plein air painting is one way that I or I take reference photographs for work in the studio. I Have traveled around the world covering in one trip about 70,000 miles from which I culled about 10,000 images. Some of these will always remain as photographs as their intrinsic quality as photographs cannot be improved upon by paint. Others, the translation into paint for me is a simple continuation of the completion of the image and the paint whether it is watercolor like AQUINNA (right) or an oil like The Knob. The capturing of a “sense of place” is the core of the undertaking and can often lead to video works for fuller fleshing of this idea.
goldmannew paintings
Aquinna 48” x30” watercolor on paper
I have been painting for many years now and in a variety of media. My favorite forms are watercolor and eggtempera on oil or “mischâ€? technique. This is the formal way of painting of Breughel, and Bottecelli and requires a paintstaking amount of time, underpainting and many eggs. But the control one gets both with the luminance and the brush stroke really makes this the technique I most enjoy. As for the watercolor I often create them as a sketch and keep many sketch books ďŹ lled of ideas. Sometimes the watercolors are the source material for an oil and is a looser way with less steps to produce. The dramatic views of The Knob over looking the entrance to Quissett harbor have been an inspirational springboard for many works.
goldmannew paintings
The Path 18” x24” Egg tempera on board
The proclivity towards painting geological formations like the rocky beaches of Quisset harbor, is informed by two books. The first is a treatise of Edward O. WIlson’s notion of consilience, the idea of the unity of knowledge literally “jumping together” of complex adaptive systems. I was originally trained as an Environmental artist, working on a large scale. This led me to the biologist’s work and to understnad the coincidental configurations of glacial recession, for example, as recorded in the rock outcropping on Quisset harbor’s morrain known as The Knob. The other treatise is about the complex underpinnings of chaos theory, the “Mandelbrot set” which posits that there is great symmetry/order in what has become known as fractal geometry. While, this is not mathematically derived imagery, it is inspired by the complex interplay of surface, depth and repetition of shape, generally of beauty in the inherent order of chaotic array.
goldmannew paintings
Quissett 48” x30” Watercolor on paper
goldmannew paintings
Boulder knob 20� x24� Egg tempera on board
The Knob 20” x24” Egg tempera on board
goldmannew paintings
Gene 8� x10� Watercolor on paper
Jim Uhls 20” x24”bEgg tempera on board
goldmannew paintings
My Monkey 18� x24� Egg Tempera on board
cow 8” x10” Watercolor on paper
goldmannew paintings
many heads 18�x24� ixed media on paper
Consilient Stone series 41” x24” Acrylic on paper
goldmannew paintings
blue figure study 4 @ 18” x24” MIxed media on paper
goldmannew paintings
978•505•5796 j@goldmanarts.com
An avid painter, working in the misch technique which combines egg tempera and oil, Mr. Goldman recieved his Masters in Science in Visual Studies from MIT at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, his B.A. at Connecticut College ( Theater) and attended Middlesex University in London, The National Theater Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Jon Goldman has won many awards including an InterArtsw grant fromt he NEA and the Rockefeller Foundation for his computer controlled intereactivity with inflatable sculpture. Goldman currently runs his studio, THOUGHT BALLOON MEDIA, which serves as a laboratory for the development and exhibition of new work. His work is in many collections including the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design’s permanent collection.
inflatable urchin lamp Smithsonian Institute’s CooperHewitt National Museum of Design
Jon Goldman is a painter, media artist and documentary filmmaker. His innovative and diverse work includes gigantic inflatable sculptures which have been exhibited in and on musuems, galleries and buildings throughout the U.s., Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong. He has produced for Al Jazeera International’s People and Power and has also produced, written and edited numerous industrial videos, animations, has designed furniture, lighting and branding programs since the eighties.