BIO
Jonathan Brooks is a Texan who transplanted himself to New York City for about ten years. While he was there, he explored every avenue of artistic expression that he could get his hands on. From musical theater to fronting his own rock and roll band to hosting karaoke with a live rock band behind him, he dove into the mouth of beast and lost himself for a while. Four years ago, he returned to his homeland of the great Lone Star State and found what he'd been looking for. Painting. Since then, he has had solo shows in Dallas and Ft. Worth, including the Magnolia Gallery, the Firehouse Gallery and the Wherehouse. He has also participated in several group shows and fundraisers including the Base and Function shows at the Corinth Park warehouse and is a permanent artist in the Illume Gallery on Cedar Springs. And while he continues to act, create music and whatever else he can squeeze in, painting has shown him a part of himself that he never knew existed. A place of complete selflessness. And he likes it there.
STATEMENT
Intrigued by the human form and all of it's manifestations, as well as human nature and all of it's dark corners, I try to capture the emotions that are provoked inside of me while looking at photographs of the inhabitants of this world. Seeing the movement hidden within the stillness of a picture, I drip the paint onto the canvas, sometimes with the aid of a box fan, to nail down in a moment all of the places that the image has been and where the image could be going. Where the brush happens to touch the canvas, so be it. It is a fleeting occurrence in a fleeting life, and where the paint lands is where it was meant to.
My most recent work is a combination of that technique and a recent obsession of adopting abandoned objects. I give those objects a home in my art, and watch the relationship between them evolve.
Jonathan Brooks is a Texan who transplanted himself to New York City for about ten years. While he was there, he explored every avenue of artistic expression that he could get his hands on. From musical theater to fronting his own rock and roll band to hosting karaoke with a live rock band behind him, he dove into the mouth of beast and lost himself for a while. Four years ago, he returned to his homeland of the great Lone Star State and found what he'd been looking for. Painting. Since then, he has had solo shows in Dallas and Ft. Worth, including the Magnolia Gallery, the Firehouse Gallery and the Wherehouse. He has also participated in several group shows and fundraisers including the Base and Function shows at the Corinth Park warehouse and is a permanent artist in the Illume Gallery on Cedar Springs. And while he continues to act, create music and whatever else he can squeeze in, painting has shown him a part of himself that he never knew existed. A place of complete selflessness. And he likes it there.
STATEMENT
Intrigued by the human form and all of it's manifestations, as well as human nature and all of it's dark corners, I try to capture the emotions that are provoked inside of me while looking at photographs of the inhabitants of this world. Seeing the movement hidden within the stillness of a picture, I drip the paint onto the canvas, sometimes with the aid of a box fan, to nail down in a moment all of the places that the image has been and where the image could be going. Where the brush happens to touch the canvas, so be it. It is a fleeting occurrence in a fleeting life, and where the paint lands is where it was meant to.
My most recent work is a combination of that technique and a recent obsession of adopting abandoned objects. I give those objects a home in my art, and watch the relationship between them evolve.
