Day 209- Jimi Gleason- Reflective Possibilities

It’s Day 209 and I got really excited about today’s artist. I did a textured piece yesterday and wanted to do another one today and found this wonderful artist. I got motivated even though I didn’t have any of the right materials or tools, but wanted to give it a go anyway! I think I at least captured his spirit with my piece and it was super fun and inspiring. I want to do a huge piece in this style. One day I’ll have the right materials to fully appreciate his work. Join me in honoring Jimi Gleason today. 🙂

Jimmy Gleason is an American artist born in 1961.

Below is from www.artsy.net.

Jimi Gleason has spent his career exploring the reflective possibilities of a painterly surface. “By using an iridescent surface coat, I have managed to create visual spaces that respond to both the play of light and the location of the viewer,” he says.

Mixing nontraditional materials such as silver deposit with acrylic paints, Gleason’s

surfaces are highly reactive to light and shifts in the viewer’s position. Rather than using focusing on the surface as an end in itself, his paintings track the play of light and the movement of the viewer across the surface, thereby acting as a mirror onto the external world. Through this movement, Gleason hopes to induce a meditative experience for his viewers.

Below’s statement is from www.samuelfreeman.com.

Artist Statement

My work can be seen as a response to physical environments through visual problem solving. I first create an interesting space (the problem) and then balance form and structure within that space in a manner that seems to distill or harmonize natural forces (the solution.) My forms and colors have always suggested nature on some scale, with the aesthetic of my paintings based in large part on the integrity of their organization.

This new collection is consistent with the themes I have developed over the last decade,

but is a radical departure in execution. By using an iridescent surface coat, I have managed to create visual spaces that respond to both the play of light and the location of the viewer. Forms emerge and recede within shifting fields of color as the paintings simultaneouslyreacttoandrepresenttheirphysicalenvironment. Thepaintingsare meticulously designed to create a meditative experience in which the viewer is given the opportunity to explore a dynamic solution to space articulated through color and form.

Below is from R.B. Stevenson Gallery’s website.

I use paint in a determined way which means the physical and metaphysical force of my paintings
is a direct result of my intuitive process. By finishing with an iridescent surface coat, I inject a certain
presence, bringing the light through, eradicating the very surface.
This creates a depth of visual space that responds to both the play of light and the

location of the
viewer. Forms emerge and recede within shifting fields of color as the paintings simultaneously
react to and modify their physical environment. By letting the image gradually evolve through the
painting activity I design the painting to ultimately create a presence in which the viewer is given

the opportunity to explore a dynamic expression of space articulated through color and form.

Like I said earlier, I did not really know the exact materials he uses, but I did watch a video of him

Waiting for spackle to dry... — Waiting for spackle to dry…

creating one of his pieces on youtube. You can watch it here if you like! It’s wonderful! So after watching that, I set out today to find some supplies that would suffice.

I used spackle and hot glue to create a really textured background and then I sprayed it down with some highly metallic silver spray paint. I then bought this hematite metallic thick paint which I sponged onto the glue surfaces and then glossed it over with enamel spray. Whew. It sure was fun and I hope to have emulated his style somewhat. His pieces are a joy to look at! I couldn’t get the lighting quite right since it’s so reflective…but they look okay. 🙂 It’s definitely more “silvery” in real life!