Glen C. Davies

Contact:

602 W. California
Urbana, IL 61801
217-384-1796
glencdavies@yahoo.com
www.glencdavies.com

Family Tree (acrylic on canvas; 3' x 4')

Artist Bio

After attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I received my B.F.A. in painting from Drake University in 1978. I went on to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where I received my M.F.A. in painting in 1981, as well as the Ford Foundation Creative and Performing Arts Fellowship. Since 1981 I have pursued a career as a full-time artist, muralist, lecturer and curator.

Professional mural work takes me to many sites around the country from Las Vegas to Miami designing and painting murals for various businesses and private clients. I have spent a considerable amount of time doing decorative painting for the circus and carnival world. The documentation of this work and experiences working in these art forms provides me with a unique perspective on the everyday life and work processes of these creative industries.

My artwork has been featured in numerous gallery exhibitions and museum shows, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Chicago's Cultural Center and the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama. Examples of my work are included in many private and public collections that include the McDonald's Corporation in Oakbrook, Illinois, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the Roger Brown Study Collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Krannert Museum and Kinkead Pavilion in Champaign, Illinois.

Visiting artist and lecture duties have taken me to over twenty college and university locales. As an artist-in-residence I've also worked in over seventy primary and secondary schools, community centers, and museums. I have conducted specialized residency programs at the Lakeview Museum in Peoria, the Rockford Art Museum, and Bradford College in Bradford, Massachusetts.

My experience of self-employment in alternative art fields provides students with information about the organization of time between studio concerns, documentation, mailings, exhibitions and supplemented income from freelance art, murals, sign painting, interior decorating, residencies, lectures, and workshops. Through slide presentations of paintings, sculptures, and installations, I try to forge a link between personal vision and my experiences in travels and alternative art pursuits.

As an artist, everyday life fuels my vision. This insight helps me experience the interplay between career alternatives and studio interests. Through residencies I strive to introduce young artists to some of the information and "hands on" experience that made this vision come alive for me. Sharing this experience with others lays the groundwork for future artists and non-artists alike, by introducing processes for thinking, planning and exploring new techniques toward the completion of a large scale collaborative project.

Meeting of the Minds (acrylic on canvas; 4' x 6')

artist statement

The narrative aspect of painting has always been the key to what drives my work. My "show and tell" personality fuels my urge to preach, teach and beat the drum. I would sum up my goal in painting as trying to make sense of the world (specifically, my world) by breaking it down into a visual language.

Perhaps it's the muralist in me or my great "first love" of medieval and renaissance subject matter, but I have always felt an obligation to relate life experience as moral drama. I feel a duty to provide something in my work that communicates ideas and opens minds to choices and new ways of facing issues in life. It might be more accurate to say that I address these issues from a personal perspective and strive to give them a more worldly application by painting them in a metaphorical or allegorical setting.

The visual language I draw from has its roots in the choice of key connections that I use to relate experiences and emotions. I try to find elements and objects that go beyond my personal experiences, and offer an association, foundation or gut feeling to draw the viewer into the scenario. Combinations of objects represent a visual text that links ideas, moods and emotions. The titles of the works often refer to a colloquial phrase, proverb, or saying employed as a clue to help unlock the riddle of the painting.

I suppose that overshadowing most other considerations is my goal to suspend time and reveal a "moment of mystery" in the work. I've used the phrase "moment of mystery" as a title for many pieces over the past twenty-five years. It remains an essential element in my artistic endeavors and relates to the sense of awe and intrigue that lies in my earliest childhood memories. Certain moments coalesce to form an inspired realization of life's mysteries and the infinity of time and space. Even crude attempts by humankind to describe or invent mystery through physical means become a fascinating source of investigation and ultimately a source for my psycho-dramas.

Through symmetry, embellishment and context I pursue this suspended moment and attempt to recreate it. Like warning signs I want the work to confront the viewer. By creating a dialogue, the paintings invite interpretation and encourage viewers to stop, reflect, assess a point in their lives and proceed with caution or guarded optimism.

-Glen Davies