Please check out
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
SOLD - Oneness 2012 - ( 44" x 60" x 3" - total dimensions for both pieces)
Picture bellow: diptych in process
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Finding Home, Press Release
Square Room Gallery To Host Finding Home, a Solo Exhibition by Seattle
Artist, Jason Hallman
Exhibition opens Dec. 8, 2011
and will feature paintings and sculpture inspired by a journey of the heart
Square Room
Gallery is pleased to announce Finding Home, part painting and part sculpture. This installation
by Seattle artist Jason Hallman was inspired by a journey of the heart. Hallman
has established a distinct visual vernacular through his unique mix of
convention and techniques, through his dynamic use of materials that draw the
viewer in.
Located at Square Room Gallery at 910 East Pike Street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, the exhibition will run from Dec. 8 to Dec. 11, 2011. There will be an opening reception on Dec. 8, 2011 from 6:30-9:00 p.m.
Hallman
perceives paint, wood, wire and other reclaimed objects as materials rich in a
familiar connotation and significance. Wood, paint and selected reclaimed
pieces have long been relied upon as a primary source of building materials for
shelter. Hallman utilizes the materials' loaded meaning to express “container
consciousness.”
Its composition
tells a story. Where is home? Where is true happiness found? Hallman has been
asking these questions all of his life. He has lived in 29 places in 39 years.
Was it a physical location, something he could see with his eyes, some goal to
achieve? His layered imagery is imbued with movement and a revolutionary
spirit. From afar, Finding Home is reminiscent of a toy house
which appears to be simplistic in structure and reference. It is only when you
place yourself amongst the complex compositions that this journey of the heart
begins.
Finding Home uses the home as a narrative departure point and a place of
exploration. In 2010, Hallman visited the Island of Hawai'i. Having been to
Oahu, Maui and Kauai, he decided to explore the Big Island where the lava has
been flowing since 1983. After exploring some of the island he found himself in
Kalapana, on the coast near the lava flow that has created some of the newest
land on earth. This one-week trip in September 2010 prompted a second six-week
trip two months later, and this six-week trip evolved into a six-month personal
spiritual journey. "It found me" Hallman says, "there was
something unexplainable." Hallman liked to travel and usually would take a
week or two and was not in the habit of taking six-week trips, let alone six-months!
Was it the land, the community or something else? He lived in an area with many
spiritually conscious people, some incorporating Eastern philosophy into their
daily lives. There was no cell phone service, hotels, restaurants or shops in
the area. There was one small black sand beach that you hike down a cliff to
get to. New life emerges as the sacred Ohia trees grow right out of the lava
that once flowed.
This odyssey
led Hallman down a path of re-learning how to navigate life. When we are born,
we know how to feel our way through, yet almost as a matter of cultural
survival we must quickly learn to think rather than feel. We are rewarded with
grades on our report card, A is for excellence. Hallman's works exist in the
midst of a similar physical and psychological exploration. Through the simple
shape of a house there’s a sense of sanctuary, a place of refuge. The
installation functions less as a literal dramatization of his experience than
an obtuse homage to the universal truths inherent in each one of us. Hallman
worked with spiritual teachers, befriending many in the community, meeting and
working with a Kahuna (a Hawaiian healer), Harry Jim; and he participated in
several all-day ceremonies. "Harry Jim taught me many things,"
Hallman says. "All of this helped open my eyes to what I could not see,
what had always been there and I now can feel and reveal. The Kahuna said to me
'you are enough!' just for being an act of creation. He said this with such
conviction, those three words, as it was the truth." The tears flowed,
Hallman felt a release, a letting go - and parts of himself started to awaken.
Many of us have had challenging childhoods and life experience. Hallman learned
that these experiences can lead to our greatest learning and work. So instead
of being resentful, blaming, avoiding or angry, he became grateful, where there
is no room to be right or wrong. He learned about Love, that it is
unconditional, without limits and accepts everything as it is and everyone just
as we are. Hallman poetically reconsiders this contemporary idea of Home through a kaleidoscope of personal, historical and allegorical
references to present an exhibition that eschews time.
Hallman's
compositions using scraps and pieces, reflect life drifting in and out and the
ineffable feeling of home. He now sees that there is no destination or end
point, only the journey, which is counter to popular Western culture, yet
universal in who we are.
Jason Hallman has lived in the Seattle area for the last 18 years. He is an
artist of life, whose medium is life itself. His art embraces challenging the
norm, exploring and inventing his own approach of expression. He believes we
are all artists of being alive. With a child-like curiosity, he knows he does
not know what's next. Staying present in the moment allows for freedom and that
is where he expects the miracles and magic will happen. As a member of the
community, as an artist, it is his intention to share his experiences and his
work, all of which are a manifestation of gratitude.
For more
information:
Exhibit location: Square Room
Gallery 910 East Pike St. Seattle 98122 on Capitol Hill.
Website:
hallmanworks.blogspot.com
Phone:
206.947.4422
Email:
hallmanworks@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)