Amazingly, Jack, a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War is enjoying his 100th spin around the sun. Every day, he spends hours making his brilliantly colorful artworks for the enjoyment of his family and the public. The tiny paper art is meticulously adhered to canvas/boards creating landscapes, impressionistic and abstract art.
Reception
Sunday, September 21
2 PM (DH)
Artist's Statement
John C. (Jack) Banham
My first memory of life is making something with my hands. In the worst years of the Great Depression, my mother spilled what I believed was flour on the floor of the area inside our New York City tenement basement that served as a kitchen. I recall gathering in my hands the flecks and particles which miraculously stuck together the more my sweating hands played with them. The shapes were not realistic, but their completion fully captured my time and attention.
Making stuff, both useful and purely for the joy of it, has defined my artistic efforts ever since, that and music, which share a symbiotic relationship with art. Before being drafted into WWII I played saxophone and clarinet with my friends in a small band. During the Korean War while in the army I was chosen to play both instruments as an entertainer in the 10th Special Service traveling band. Over the decades, my memories, thoughts and emotions have been conveyed through both forms of human creativity.
Curiosity has guided me in executing a wide and diverse array of artworks. I look back now and realize I was searching for my artistic medium; something that captured my imagination, yet was rare and unique. I had dabbled with impressionistic oil and acrylic paintings in my artistic journey, but the works were homages, rather than more personal compositions.
In 2010 while jogging it dawned on me that by cutting colored paper into small pieces I could arrange them on a canvas or found piece of ply board to effect something similar to Impressionism—my "Aha!" moment. The subjects of these works run a wide gamut, each one based on an image or a narrative that comes to mind and soon captures my time and attention, like shapes made from flour and sweat in my childhood.
Biography
Jack is a longtime artist whose works through the decades have ranged from large cubist wall hangings made of sheetrock and colored sand to handcrafted stained glass panels and lamps. carved oak chess pieces and wood busts and glass/wood furniture, oil and acrylic paintings. and abstract metal garden sculptures. In the early 2010's. Jack developed an innovative artistic technique that has defined his works since.
Moved by images drawn from his memory and imagination. Jack uses a sharp pair of scissors to meticulously cut premium colored paper into hundreds of small shapes that he assembles on new or used canvases and other found materials. His subjects include cityscapes, landscapes, portraits and both impressionistic and abstract compositions. A grouping of these distinctive works is featured in this art exhibition.
Jack's paper artworks have been displayed in the Flushing Town Hall's "World's Borough Exhibition." the Rockville Centre Sandel Senior Center, and in the galleries of the N. Bellmore, Rockville Centre, and the new Oceanside libraries. Upcoming solo exhibitions include the library galleries of E. Rockaway, N. Merrick, W. Hempstead, Garden City. Half Hollow Hills. Hewlett-Woodmere and E. Meadow. In addition, a virtual show of many of his pieces is displayed on the Hewlett-Woodmere Library gallery website. Several of his artworks have been donated to various fundraisers. Molloy University Veteran's Lounge, and to SIBS Place in Rockville Centre.
Amazingly. Jack, a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, is enjoying his one hundredth spin around the sun. Every day, he spends hours making his brilliantly colorful artworks for the enjoyment of his family and the public.
Contact: forevario@optonline.net to purchase art or request information about any of this artwork and other pieces meticulously made by Jack.