Josh Keyes

"I often think of the paintings as small stage sets that I use to play out and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas, through objects and their relationship to one another. The scientific format I use in my work screams "rationality" and "precision." It suggests and stands for the intellect or empirical knowledge, which is concerned with the absolute model of things in the world. I use this dry form of illustration to contrast the personal and emotional response I have to current events and issues. The polarity between the hard, factual, realism, and emotional expression creates tension. The intersection between things known and things felt is what interests me. The scientific, dissection and cross section model expresses a certain hidden or underlying beauty of how all things are interrelated. A cross section can expose the root structure of a tree, or express geological time through the different layers and strata of the earth and soil."

"My intention is to create work that asks questions about the implications of urban sprawl and its impact on the environment. I am interested in creating psychological narratives set in closed systems that express the behavior and interaction between humans and animals. The dystopic model provides a dynamic playing field where I can explore the possible future effects that human activity might have on ecosystems, human populations and the geography of the earth. "

"The system I use for exploring visual information and story telling is highly reductive. I always liked the expression used by Michelangelo to describe what good sculpture was. Sculpture is what is left after it is rolled down a hill. I try to apply this idea in my painting. Sometimes less is more and sometime more is more. I try to work out a balance. Another way of thinking about the diagrammatic system in the work has to do with what could be called the “male gaze”, though in our hyper culture of advertising, video games and downloads the male gaze seems to have expanded to envelop both the male and female psyche. The context I create in my work calls attention to the idea of the male gaze, or objectification. Many of the political and environmental issues I bring to the work have their cause in this objectified and detached way of looking at and interacting with the world. I see the diagrammatic space in my work as a key character, it is the viewer the one who sees, selects, edits, classifies, and compartmentalizes. It is the old and outdated scientific method or approach to the world that I am calling attention to. It is this way of seeing and thinking that has caused and created many of the problems that we are faced with today."

"My work often contains a hybridization of concepts and imagery that express global concerns about ecological, political, and militarism issues. I try to create work that fuses my personal mythology and imagery with these concerns. The result is a continuous and evolving pattern of fragmented imagery that slowly unfolds and folds like a patchwork quilt. The work functions for me as a record of both my personal history and interpretation of events in the world."

- Josh Keyes