Bear of Greeen
Jim Shrosbree
Ceramic
Art Dimensions: 10" x 7" x 6.25
Exhibition - Iowa Clay Conference | Eastern Iowa Educators
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Artist Statement
Between what is known and not known is the wakefulness of the present, without past or future. This abstract nature of reality is not really about doing or what has been done and becomes artifact, but what is. Ultimately it is a connectedness that plays the role of 'life spark', always unspent, continuously potent, before and after every moment. It is the seed of imagination. Making art opens the door to this area. Opening that door is my reason for creating anything. Attempting that means I have first been there, consciously or unconsciously.
One comes to the process with a certain capacity for experience. Being curious about the world involves, essentially, an investigation into the nature of the self and the structure of what one is made of: energy, pattern, intelligence and connection to origin.
Curiosity is a gift that is fulfilled through the ability to listen. Listening to the quietest messages focuses the attention at the moment a "thing" is manifested. That involves timing. Timing is rhythm and without it we are lost. Utilizing time is dancing with time and not being consumed by it. The perfection of that moment can yield the emergence of a new reality. There is sheer joy in the authenticity of it. Owning more of that connectedness throughout the process of creating is reason enough to continue.
Artist Biography
Jim Shrosbree’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States. Public collections with his work include the Detroit Institute of Art, Los Angeles County Museum, Edythe and Ely Broad Museum, Des Moines Art Center, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Mint Museum, and Daum Museum of Contemporary Art.
Shrosbree has been a visiting artist at numerous universities and art institutions including Cranbrook Academy of Art, NYU, UC-Davis, Bard College, University of Washington, University of Minnesota, Penn State University, Alberta University of the Arts, Drake University and the University of Iowa. He has received residency fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts.
Awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, the National Endowment for the Arts (Midwest Fellowship) among others. Jim Shrosbree received an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Montana, Missoula. He is Professor of Art at Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa where he lives and works.