James Bockelman

Artist Statement

     At any given time, I carry around with me an assortment of odd, haptic experiences and visual impressions — how can I forget my near sighted father, sitting in the dark living room without his glasses on, staring at the Christmas tree lights because they were fuzzy, orbs of color; and then him inviting me, his thirteen year old son to take my glasses off so that I also might participate in his seeing — these referents register with me. And I often find that a painting may begin there with a slight connotation, with little idea of how the final work will evolve. Though few of the paintings follow any overt theme or formula, they ultimately travel through the process of painting until they accumulate their own identity; these paintings move beyond their initial reference and become a work that I recognize as my own.

     I trust the process of painting and often work on twenty-five paintings at one time. I do this because I want to bring all of them up together toward resolution. In doing so, I am able measure how the images dialogue with one another, exchange energy, or serve as an additional, critical space for one another.

     To decide how to begin a painting is just as important as to decide when the thing is completed. I hate using a square format, yet all of the paintings in this series measure 22” x 22”. The square was selected because of its historic relevance to the development of abstraction and as an appropriate location to study the activity of light and color. Rather than the traditional landscape or portrait, the square, with its even, dynamic energy also alludes to a non–site, a location that is in–between. And though my mind and eye are often the most engaged while painting, the painting’s size and scale relate well to the space between my shoulders and hips.

Artist Bio

     James Bockelman is currently a Professor of Art at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska where he earned his Bachelor's degree. He received his MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in Nebraska including the Sheldon Museum of Art, the Museum of Nebraska Art , and Peru State College as well as a solo exhibition in 2007 entitled "New Works on Paper" at Kunstoffice in Berlin, Germany.

     James has also been involved in many group exhibitions. In 2014 he was included in the 9th Annual Exhibition with AXIS Gallery, Sacramento, CA, as juried by the curator of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has received numerous awards including Best of Show in the Fred Wells National Juried Exhibition at Nebraska Wesleyan University and  Individual Artist Fellowship Merit Awards from the Nebraska Arts Council. He iwas included in the 2015 exhibition at the Joslyn Art Museum, "Art Seen: A Juried Exhibiton of Artists from Omaha to Lincoln."