artifacts and extractions from the perceptual mind-stream

Words, symbols, and color, are used to create patterns that provoke thoughts and ideas relating to something I read or see that compels me. I then begin to process the thought or idea into visual elements. I first add layers of color and wax, then paint, draw, and scratch to create multi-layered, nearly 3-dimensional surfaces. I often work with repetition, particularly the repetition of a symbol, word, or a series of words or statements in linear, circular, or grid patterns. While working in this repetitive manner, the creating of the piece becomes a visual mantra for me, and the creation of the painting has as much importance as the finished work.

Title: Family Outing Title: Animales Mixed medium- colored tissue paper and india ink on paper.

I am fascinated by structure and change as it manifests itself around me: in nature, caused by human intervention, and the seemingly random. Structure and change can be experienced through comparison, movement, and by paying attention to the passing of time. As such, my subjects range from large scale natural and everyday environments to studies of small scale details.

Photography focuses my attention, draws me into the present, and allows me to perceive more intensively than otherwise. The camera lets me capture and share this experience, by freezing or blurring movement, by stretching or compressing time, by pointing to obscure detail. To stop and connect with the present moment has become the rare occasion for many. This way of living diminishes the capacity to perceive the subtleties around us. My images are meant to both reflect this transitory quality, as well as offer counterpoints to it.

I take quantitative information from the US Census and other public websites and create works of fine art. I explore pages of data that now fill the public realm relating to demographics, religion, ethnic backgrounds, hate crimes, gender issues-- topics that define our modern world-- and recompose these statistics into visual form.

I use simple materials (acrylic paint, graphite pencils, rulers and drafting film) to create complex, information-rich art. My process is labor intensive. Instead of using a computer to generate layouts and designs, I sort through the numbers and graphs, collate information, sketch out designs, and then draft and paint. This allows me to digest the information; the final product not only accurately describes the quantities, but the qualities of the new ‘map’ I have created.

My background as an architect has greatly influenced how I approach art. An architect takes information and translates it into built form. The intent is to make a functional, beautiful object. My art uses this same process, creating images that evoke discourse and insight into the world around us.

Artist Jonah Ward creates works of art that, in their most literal form, are compellingly aesthetic; in their most metaphorical, they are a testament to our always relevant interaction with the natural world.

While requiring sustained physical interaction with natural materials, Jonah’s works are also paradoxically devoid of his literal touch or imprint. He acts more as a facilitator—harnessing natural processes and phenomenon, while also according them their proper respect for their capacity for both incommensurable beauty and destruction.

Jonah's original, and most prevalent series of work is composed of panels of wood stamped with what could be tar-like paint and printed with abstract designs and meanderings. Upon closer inspection, the woods—with their different grains, colors, and textures—are scarred with burns: what is left over when Jonah drips, ladles, presses, cools, and peels molten glass from them. 

Pursuing his use of natural elements, Jonah combines paper, water, fire and light to create another series of work he's titled "Burning Water". For this intense process, Jonah blasts fire at paper masked by streams of cool water, orchestrating a battle between these opposing forces. The aftermath is a composition of beautiful destruction—a moment Jonah describes as "controlled chaos frozen in time".

In his most recent series titled “Textured ‘Paintings,’” Jonah reinterprets the idea of what traditionally defines a painting or drawing. Rectangular pieces of madrone tree bark, leaves and paper from bald faced hornet's nests are separately adhered to wood canvases in a patchwork pattern, resulting in painting-like forms containing a richness and depth only matched by other natural occurring colors, textures and materials. 

Jonah’s final works represent an organization of seemingly chaotic content and situations, yet are bound by a sense of structure—a common thread that has become prevalent in all of his work.

Art is always a process of discovery for me. One of my goals as an artist is to coax viewers into noticing more details about their environment through the experience of looking at or remembering my paintings -- perhaps, if I'm successful, sharing or extending my own process of discovery. I have both figurative and abstract bodies of work. When I begin a new body of work, I feel like I am learning a new language.

Aristotle said,