WHAT OTHERS SAY
“John is a magician with watercolor and paper — conjuring up objects as various as clothing, plant specimens, pens and medals, adding the patina of age, craftsmanship, life or decay.
“To me it seems as if he is creating a scene with these various touchstones just as a theatre set conveys mood and atmosphere to take us to another world and another age for a moment, sometimes to tell a message or allow us to make up one of our own. From a distance his three-dimensional constructions — with their play of light and shadow — encourage a closer look. Then the tiny details he adds such as stitching on fabric, or glimpse of an old map and handwritten letter fascinate further. I find it hard to come away from one of his exhibitions empty handed.”
— Jane Batchelor, New Zealand art collector
“John’s work impresses me on a number of levels. His past skills as a graphic designer and typographer are infused into works of fine art, which provide a fluency and accessibility. John talks about things of the every day — such as the local landscape, the history and people of an area, his passion for trout fishing, and his wife Kathy’s love of cooking. These things and more are integrated into images and narratives, which resonate with familiarity and power to the people around him. Above all for me, personally, John’s work brings together and stresses the values of the environment, the people, the places they live and the stories they tell.”
— Bing Dawe, sculptor and friend
HOW TO GO:
What: John Emery exhibition “things left behind”
When: Through June 20. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.
Where: The Dayton Visual Arts Center, 118 N. Jefferson St.
Admission: Free
A Gallery Talk with John Emery is slated for 6:15 on Thursday evening, June 18. For more information: www.daytonvisualarts.org and www.johnfernery.com
A SUNDAY CHAT
In her periodic Sunday Chat series, arts writer Meredith Moss talks with folks who are making news in our region. If you have someone you would like to suggest, contact Meredith: MMoss@coxohio.com
A browning apple core. A delicate eyelet dress. A broken porcelain cup and saucer. A bird’s nest. A bunch of toy soldiers. A glove.
Dayton artist John Emery is best known for the treasured bits and pieces of our lives he collects, then reassembles in a fresh and memorable way. His watercolor and paper 3-D constructions spark our imaginations and prompt us to create for ourselves the stories that might have inspired his intriguing paintings.
He’s been called Dayton’s favorite illusionist and philosopher. Emery is in the news at the moment thanks to an impressive exhibit of his work at the Dayton Visual Arts Center in downtown Dayton. The show, “things left behind,” will be on display through June 20. Emery will share thoughts about his work in a gallery talk at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, June 18, at DVAC.
“We’re just fascinated with the way he takes paper and makes it live,” says Betsy Whitney of Kettering, who with her husband, Lee, has collected Emery’s work over the years. “One of the paintings we own includes a pair of glasses, a fountain pen and a clock. You can’t believe the objects aren’t real, that they’re made out of paper. They come right out of the frame! You’re drawn to it, fascinated by it.”
Guest curator Eileen Carr states that it’s not just the object, but its history, that Emery sets out to record in his work. “These things that we leave behind, whether commonplace or noble, haunt us,” she writes in her introduction to the current show. “They are full of memories, dreams and stories real and imagined. Emery has an eye for picking out these elegiac fragments. In reclaiming them for his curious tromp l’oiel still-life constructions, he conjures them into a new world. “
Emery, who divides his time between Dayton and Burkes Pass, New Zealand, is a graduate of the School of the Dayton Art Institute and the University of Dayton and received a graduate degree from the Manchester College of Art and Design in England. He splits his time between his two studios — one in Dayton and the other in the south island of New Zealand. He’s lectured and taught at various colleges and universities both in the U.S. and in New Zealand and was the visiting artist at Christchurch College of Art and Design in 2001. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited and collected both nationally and internationally.
Emery, whose current exhibits also include New Zealand landscapes, says the objects in his paintings, like memories, are often not what they seem. In his artist statement for the current exhibition, he says his fascination with the scraps and fragments of how things record memories started when he was a child and spent hours exploring his grandparents’ long forgotten trunks.
“Old notebooks, faded papers, postcards and bits of string attracted me,” he writes. “But it was always the undefined fragment of an object or the battered leather cover of a journal that fired my imagination.”
In today’s “Sunday Chat,” we talk with John Emery about his life and his work.
Q. Can you describe the process involved in making your unusual watercolor constructions?
A. The painting starts with rough sketches to organize my thoughts. I then paint an object or background. The three dimensional objects are either selected from a store of previously made objects — a rock, skull, feather, etc. — or I form a new object from wet paper. Once dry, it is then painted. These objects are glued onto the composition. The last step is to paint the shadows.
Q. What do you hope visitors will take away from seeing your work?
A. I would hope that it would spark personal memories and the need to explore other places, times, and cultures.
Q. How does the "place" and environment influence your art? Can you talk about how you first got to New Zealand, why it attracted you, what it's like to live in two locations?
A. I first went to New Zealand to teach at the Canterbury University and fell in love with the land and people. To this day the incredible pureness of the environment and outdoorsy culture are a major attraction. Art is a big deal in New Zealand, supported by the government and championed by the people; there are always lively discussions, critics, and work to challenge me. Since I seldom take work with me from one studio to another, it is always a creative shot to rediscover work that is in process but not seen for a number of months.
Q. Can you talk about how and where you work?
A. Most of my work is done in the studio, occasionally plein-air sketches. A typical day will consist of coffee, look at what I completed yesterday, more coffee, maybe some new sketches, work on current paintings, probably some research, stretch paper, start making paper objects, wonder why I didn't get much done!
Q. How do you select names for your artwork?
A. The title for the paintings is the last thing I do and they are usually descriptive of the subject matter, however often there is a twist on words or it is a clue about the story. For instance "Core Curriculum" is based on my studio in New Zealand, which was originally a 19th-century schoolhouse. The students were given apples for lunch and they threw the apple cores into the schoolyard. Today we have over 13 different apple trees as a result.
Q. What artists do you most admire?
A. The list grows daily. Today it's: Matisse, Joseph Cornell, Sargent, Milton Glaser, Saul Steinberg, Ray Ching, Bing Dawe, Michael Borremans, Joanna Braithwaite and Ralph Hotere.
EARLY YEARS
Q. What kind of child were you? Were you always interested in art?
A. I was always collecting things and daydreaming. I always drew things and painted. I remember sitting on the marble floor at the DAI and trying to draw with broken stubby crayons. I was probably 4 or 5.
Q. What was the Dayton art Institute school like when you attended?
A. The DAI school was an exciting and challenging place to study art. All the students were incredibly committed to a career in art. Classes lasted from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, however most of us stayed on until late at night working on projects. I didn't take art at UD but completed my academic courses. I had a philosophy minor.
Q. Who were mentors over the years and why?
A. I was fortunate to have some inspiring teachers both in high school — Julia Sharky at Fairview High School — and all the teachers at the DAI. They all supported me and provided me with new creative challenges daily.
When I joined Vie Design and Read Viemeister in Yellow Springs, I had no idea of his stature in the design world. He had designed automobiles (worked on the Tucker automobile), bicycles (Huffy bikes), logos (Winters Bank / NCR / DAP / Antioch College,) architecture, the First Flight Mural and almost anything that took his fancy. More importantly, his studio was a design Utopia.
We were encouraged to become involved in the design community both nationally and internationally. Read served on the national board of the Industrial Designers Society of America and was one of the first designers to be named a fellow of IDSA. Discussions of art and design were a daily occurrence and we had a full library of books and periodicals from all over the world. Read also believed in travel and gave me a year long sabbatical to teach at Canterbury University in New Zealand.
Q. What do you love about being an artist?
A. I can't imagine not being around art, creating it, collecting it, or just looking at it. The challenge is to continually push your self to confront the unknown — a blank space waiting to be something.
Q. What advice would you give to parents whose children are interested in art?
A. I'm not a parent so I hesitate to give advice, except to support, encourage, visit every art museum you can find and have original art in your home.
Q. Do you miss art you've sold?
A. Once I have finished a work, I am usually anxious to move on. It is always a great feeling to see my work in someone's home or gallery. It's like meeting an old friend and seeing that they're doing well.
Q. What would you like to do art-wise that you haven't done?
A. Work on that blank piece of paper.
About the Author
