We are each individually-wrapped points of consciousness, are we not?

 

When I display a piece of my art, my consciousness is reaching out into the world. If your consciousness perceives it there...a bridge is built between us. The bridge may be small and tenuous, or big and powerful, but there is a bridge nonetheless.

 

The best artists strive to communicate their most personal, intimate, authentic experiences, so that the bridge between us can be one that is big, powerful, and profound. 

 

It's not easy. The artist has to do a dive-deep into his own heart and come to understand what is there, then turn around and and express what has been found. 

 

That's where I'm diving.

 

- Jim Parks

I was six when the kids on the block started calling me “The Artist." I always had a pencil in my hand.

 

But when it came time to make a living, the Siren Song Of The Theater called and I performed on many stages in Chicago. I ended up with a long career on TV and radio commercials…culminating in becoming the on-air host of "New Spaces" on HGTV, a remodeling show that aired interesting room renovations for 10 years.

 

At the end of that stint, moving into semi-retirement and itching to paint seriously, I began to produce the art that had been simmering there, unexpressed, for most of my working life. It was as if a key had been turned. Artwork started to flow through me again and out into the world. It's been a migration:

 

I painted flowers at first. I love the tangled vegetation beneath that gives rise to the form and function of a flower. 

 

Then I moved away from the squared-off confines of the canvas to the curvilinear freedom of shaped wood. I made "wall sculptures” out of layers of thin painted panels. I explored layers and edges that could be as curved and interesting as my jigsaw would allow. 

 

From there I left the aspects of painting— color, value, texture, and shading — behind. I moved on to the medium of wire, where the only aspect you have to work with is line. For example, I built a wire homage to a famous Toulouse-Lautrec painting of a seated dancer. Looking at his painting, I mentally remove the color, value, and texture from his painting, revealing the beautiful bones of his composition. I can celebrate this framework. in wire.

 

Now I have swung in a completely opposite direction, to the vivid color of the Impressionists. There must have been something in the water in Paris around the 1870s that brought about a gush of creative facility with paint. To learn from them and walk in their footsteps I've painted 60-some tiny 4" x 4" panels, each an homage to Monet, Degas, Gauguin and their friends.

 

My paints and I crave the pleasure of the dance, the challenge of the fight, and all the conversation in-between.

• Evanston Made Arts Festival - Jun 2021

• The Art Center HIghland Park, Interconnectivity - Jun 2021

• Evanston Made Pop-Up Gallery

• Stola Gallery: Celebrate LGBTQ! - Nov-Dec 2021

• Stola Gallery: These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things - Dec 2021 - Jan 2022

• Stola Gallery: Democracy In Danger Jul-Aug 2022

• Stola Gallery: Visions Of Hope Dec 22-Jan23

• Evanston Made Holiday Store - Nov.-Dec. 2022

• Creative Coworking Public Display - Jan - Feb 2022

• Evanston Made Gallery Sep-Oct 2022

* Evanston Made Sculpture Gallery Jan-Feb 2023

• Stola Gallery: Angels And Demons Feb-Mar 2023

• Stola Gallery: The Art of Protest Jun-July 2023