Jonah R Ward
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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.
