Josh Keyes

Home

Upcoming Shows

Featured Work

Paintings

Drawings

Prints

Installations

Sketchbook

Videos

Biography

Exhibitions

Mailing List

Contact

Links

Forum
 

Paintings and Drawings   







Through my work I attempt to examine the phenomenon of transformation and change. My intention is to evoke an emotional urgency by depicting animals that both inhabit and interact with invented scenarios that draw upon archetypal and global mythological themes. The paintings embody a vision that is idiosyncratic, yet the familiar contextual elements allows for a connection to common and global concerns we share.

 

It is important to me that the imagery I work with is accessible to others. That the viewer is able to take away from the work a new understanding about themselves with the hope that they too might engage in the awakening and discovery of their own personal mythology and imagery, and find meaning and significance in it.

 

I tend to think of objects or structures such as street signs, monuments, mailboxes and pavement as metaphors to illustrate the conscious mind or ego. These elements could also be thought of as representing the social or moral requirements and demands a society places on the individual. The themes in the work come from personal experience and also from dreams and active imagination. The animals are used to personify and express the unconscious impulses and energy of the psyche. The tension that is created when the surreal imagery from the unconscious meets the conscious landscape holds tremendous mystery and fascination for me. It is in this space that I find the freedom to explore the depth of archetypal and mythic potentiality. 


A major theme that runs through the backbone of all of my work is a concern for the environmental crisis we all face today. Aspects of climate change, species extinction, and the threat of rising sea levels are integrated and woven through the mythological fabric of the work. For me this has a cathartic purpose, which is intended for others to share, reflect, and perhaps out of that some kind of positive action will occur, either in ones lifestyle or political activity.


Josh Keyes was born in 1969 in Tacoma Washington. Keyes graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and later received his MFA in painting from Yale University. Keyes currently lives and works in Portland Oregon.













 
Copyright © 2001-2010  Josh Keyes