john folsom
ABOUT
John Folsom grew up in Paducah, Kentucky and earned his BFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University. John began college as a music major but quickly switched majors to photography after taking a basic black and white class in 1986.
A residency at the Christoph Merian Foundation, Switzerland in 1997 transformed his work from small and figurative to large-scale landscape. John's many travels over the past 7 years have figured prominently in his work. He typically takes photographs of the landscape and alters them with oil paint and digital technology to create painterly landscapes evocative of the late 19th century sensibility. The work, however, is firmly grounded in the present, showing its material and construction, creating an ironic dialog between romantic techniques of the past and materials used in high-speed reproduction today.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“Landscape as seen through the gaze of photography or other media can elicit an emotional response that seems based on the primordial connection humans have with land.
My work has always dealt with different theories about how landscape images or the landscape itself are used. All of the basic elements involved with historical landscape painting have been incorporated into my work; sublimity and the terrain itself (wood, water, and rock). Lately, I have become fascinated with how landscapes are constructed for use as backdrops in the commercial realm. These landscapes are composed of elements culled from different resources. Stock images of terrain and sky are observed, processed and digitized to obtain the most perfect version of that considered familiar and accessible. The goal when working with my own process is to take the raw images I capture and alter them digitally, building an idealized version of landscape. In opposition to a seamless vision, I choose to let the process show itself. The painting technique is evocative of how color and texture can be applied digitally to achieve an enhanced rendition of the natural environment. Upon installation the viewer then becomes both audience and participant, creating individual mythos' based on the references and beliefs that person brings to the work”.