9/5/09 Brittany Gates - Jason Willome

If you walk into Blue Star, turn left and follow the faint noises and blinking lights, you will reach Jason Willome's work. Jason is a painter who was born in San Antonio, and now teaches painting and drawing at the University of Hawaii Manoa.

His room at Blue Star featured several paintings and two projected videos. His paintings are very rich in color and texture. He uses acrylic, ink and acetate in the majority of his paintings. And a lot of them feature the same images or silhouettes of deer. These deer images come from framed newspaper clipping with a photo of two deer fighting at the entrance to the room.

One thing I loved the most about his work is the incredible textures in his paintings. You can see where some of his canvas has been cut away and filled in with a plastic. I would love to know his process in creating these. I can only imagine the work that must go into each one, since he has to not only be precise in the sections he cuts out, but also in keeping the shape of his canvas.

The work of his I liked best is called, "Our Celestial Companions (Proprioceptive Resonance) Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah". This is another large scale painting done in acrylic, ink and acetate on wood. But, it also has a sound-sensitive lighting element. The painting is primarily black with some transparent white shapes in the center. The lighting element is behind these shapes and it reacts in time to the noise of his video projections.

Normally when I look at a work, I like to think about it for awhile before checking the title. In this case, I saw the title first, and was glad I did. Looking at this painting, it was easy to imagine these white shapes on black background as galaxies in space. The lighting and background noise added to the effect. I found it a very peaceful experience. I think if there wasn't so much more art to look at, I would have liked to stay in that room, watching Jason's painting twinkle at me.