Jason Walker
                                             artist

On 1 November 2016 at University Galleries in Downtown Normal, Pokatella, Idaho artist in ceramics Jason Walker conducted a lecture on Form and Surface.  Jason received his BFA from Idaho State University and his MFA from Penn State University.  He has recently had stints as a studio artist in Washington state and Hawaii just to name a few. He has lectured at numerous venues nationally and internationally to include the Smithsonian Institute.  Jason will be a visiting artist here at Illinois State University for approximately 3 weeks. Jason has been a studio artist for the past 16 years.  It is through his art and its lucrative assets that he supports himself. As a lover of nature he showed images of him hiking throughout the mountains of the northwest and in the canyons of the southwest portions of the United States and Canada as well as the mountain-ed Islands of Hawaii.           

Fig 1.1 Stacking a Skyline

     His technical art process includes porcelain clay with painted images to include under glazes, sub-casting and china paint. Jason likes to use representational imagery in a narrative format in his 3-D works.  In his piece "Stacking a Skyline” Fig. 1.1

he applied a unique mesh of nature and the mechanics of mans industrialized world portraying how it contributes to the decay of nature.  On the back of the bear are images of the industrial accomplishments of man that are superbly illustrated as it takes the viewers eyes deeper into the piece through the artists thought process.  In this piece he has depicted the bear in a child-like position as a child would while amusing himself while playing with building blocks.  I read it as mans childlike greed for land, power and money.  I have identified the bear in the masculine since because the male is often associated with production and industry.  It is my opinion that Jason was trying to convey how man toys with existence of nature.

 In the illustration on the back of the bear there is a deer in the foreground grazing on asphalt where there should be grass and in the background there is more depictions of man’s contributions to the degeneration of the environment.

Fig, 1.2 Stacking a Skyline (rear)

Jason stated that he is amazed with the nuances of technology and how it has convenience our lives however; he is not so entertained with how we use technology in our weapons of war and its contributions to the destruction of nature and society. Jason has masterfully articulated his concepts in his work.