Jim Phalen

Gallery Affiliations: Dolby Chadwick Gallery, Linda Hodges Gallery

Region: Pacific Coast

Website: http://www.jimphalen.com

City / State: Kenmore, WA

Wise is the man who contents himself with the spectacle of the world.
–Jose Saramango

This new work continues my interest in perception and ideas of placement, subject and time. The subject matter is natural but commodified, i.e. fruits, vegetables or fish. I refer to them as “Kitchen Still Lifes.” I limit my subjects to common everyday items found at the local grocery store. Through the tools of perception and paint, I want to elevate the common to the uncommon.

I am interested in continuing and contributing to the rich tradition of the still life. It is an endeavor that involves careful visual scrutiny. Painting perceptually is a prolonged engagement, taking weeks if not months, to complete, while nature and time continue unabated and indifferent to artistic intention. In the still life I seek to freeze time where things remain motionless. Witnessed and recorded slowly, to be re-seen and re-ordered through color and substance into a painting.