JON PRICHARD

Collective Artist
Fall 2019

Jonathan Prichard is a Charlotte-based artist who creates drawings, paintings, prints, and property-based performances that explore visual representations of psychological states and situations.  He finds artistic inspiration in the challenges, obstacles, absurdities, and impossibilities of life.  He works to transform these circumstances into stylized beauty and cultivation of wisdom.  He is interested in the interconnectivity of artistic disciplines and enjoys collaborating with dancers, musicians, poets, and artists from other backgrounds.  Prichard received an M. F. A. in sculpture (2010) and a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking (2003) from Winthrop University where he has also taught 3D design, drawing, performance, and relief printmaking.  In addition to Goodyear Arts, he has been awarded residencies at the McColl Center for Art and Innovation, 701 CCA, and Fort Wayne Ballet Too. Prichard has created or collaborated on over 50 performance works and is a member of Sinergismo performance ensemble and XOXO Theater.  For the past five years, Prichard has worked as an exhibits preparator for Culture and Heritage Museums of York County where he installs and creates components for natural history and interactive children’s exhibits.   

jonprichard.com
@jonathan.p.prichard

Artist Statement

During my residency at Goodyear Arts I created two bodies of work that converged into one.  The first was the dimensional panels.  The goal of this set was to fuse my object-making practice with my image-making practice.  These pieces all began as small pencil sketches that abstracted the image of “torso” and fused this torso with other possible housings for the soul.  I think of these pieces as talismans to consult in times of difficulty and change.  For example, Infinite Armor might provide the viewer with strength and protection, while Ornament for the Unknown might assist one in making a difficult decision where several options are at hand.

The other set began with a consistent square wooden panel format and sought to combine relief printmaking techniques with painting.  Using the theme of “night sky,” I carved linoleum blocks and collected textures that I thought would make good stamps.  Rather than creating perfect prints, I was interested in how unique each print or stamp could be as I intended to enhance each repeated area in divergent ways.  This imagined and illuminated night sky is full of jewels, angels, spaceships, and robot gods of the future.  It is the source of stories and legends that links the past and the future, and it is a unifying backdrop to the contents of the world.

I created most of the forms for the sculptural pieces in anticipation of this residency.  I felt like I had a fairly clear idea in my mind of how to finish them.  However, once I put these two groups together, they began to diverge from the expected path and gain influence from the other works in the studio.  Often times, pieces were started to try a divergent idea or technique.  For example, Building for the Heavens depicts an imagined past rather than future.  It also focuses on built structures that relate to the night sky rather than the sky itself.   Heart of Diamonds and Origin of the Crow began with the same print matrix, but took completely different routes from there.  Future Legend is a variation of A Brighter Night Sky, but began with a black background rather than yellow and silver.

For both bodies of work, I was interested in finding a finish point for the piece that maintained ambiguity or referred to multiple images at one time.  This provides viewers the opportunity to project themselves onto the work and to evolve interpretation as circumstances of daily life change them.