About
JERRY SVOBODA
I’m a visual artist working in traditional two-dimensional media of drawing, painting, and printmaking. I have a life-long love of drawing, which underlies all of my artwork. I often start my pictures from direct observation and I allow myself to elaborate and diverge as I work through them. I forgo the use of photo-reference. This exclusion brings forward my recollections and exercises my imagination. It makes the work more personal, since it naturally highlights what I’m seeing as important.
Rendering landscapes opens up my imagination. A long-held fantasy of a pre-historic world fuels this work. I fix upon a time scale that is geologic in scope, with unstoppable natural forces, using landscape as a stage to perform invented and often irrational scenes of flourishing and catastrophe. The influence of human-kind is less-powerful in these pictures as I question our significance in the grand scheme. My intention is to confront the sublime ideal that underlies traditional landscape with something upsetting and dynamic.
My figurative work explores vulnerability and nudity. The way I understand my own body informs and overlaps with my seeing, feeling, and representation of the model. I think of this as a form of empathy that unfolds through the process of representation. The boundary between self and subject often dissolves, connecting me to my humanity.
I grew up in small-town Nebraska, drawing, painting, animating, and writing songs- when I was not driving a tractor on the farm. Our rather large family valued intellect and creativity. Naturally, I went to college and studied art. I avoided returning to the farm after college by putting together a career in the film business, providing practical effects for TV commercials and stop-motion rigging for animated feature films. I’ve lived in Portland, Oregon for nearly 20 years, where I maintain a small art studio behind my home. A few years ago, I stepped away from film work to pursue fine art exclusively.
I have a BA in Art and Art History with an emphasis on painting and drawing. I've studied at Cal Poly, Pomona, the University of New Mexico, and the Art Institute of Chicago. I’m a member/ owner at Blackfish Gallery in Portland, Oregon and a former member of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative.
Jerry Svoboda