STUDY

Doug Jeck

 

 

Initially, the title for this show was going to be “Ego.”

 

This intriguing definition of Ego: “ a transcendental unity with one’s apperception” implies that the sense of identity I live with today is an amalgam of all of my previous “perceived truths” in synch with whom I understand myself to be right now. So, this “unity” is the active construct for my present, projected self.

Yep, I concur.

 

While all of that is sensible analytically, it doesn’t address the very real impact that various orders of “internal fiction” have in forming us, especially we artists—most especially those who engage the human object.

 

I’m convinced the thing that truly distinguishes visual artists from civilians has to do with the degree to which we truly believe in “so-called” fictions (and not just our own, by the way). I’ve made some of mine, mostly through clay, and I know they’re real, physically.

 

Oddly, when I look at the human objects I made thirty, or fifteen, or eight years ago, they don’t seem fictitious anymore. They still exist and (unlike us, I insist) their meaning becomes more concrete as time passes.

 

The ideas and impulses regarding psyche and soul that I’ve attempted to engage through these works here today are remarkably vivid to me. I can only know this because I began each piece so seemingly emphatic in concept, but through process, they alter so radically as to appear almost foreign to me. It’s gloriously humbling.

 

I suppose my reason to continue to fabricate persona through clay is to receive (and perhaps provide) actual evidence to decipher or, at least, to study.

 

These works are dedicated to the memory of my mentors,

Stephen DeStaebler and Tom Rippon.