Tim Jag

About the Artist

Colornova Series

NOVA: “a new star, or a star that turns a hundred times brighter from a cataclysmic explosion within itself”

This new painting series I am calling “Colornova’s” because they are a way for me to visualize an interest in the phenomena of stars within our solar system. The paintings are my way of abstractly using color and symmetry to symbolize celestial movement and experience. At its core these paintings use a single point where all things lead to or fly away from. This interest in stars is multifaceted in its concepts and springs from numerous sources. My interest was first sparked by the iconic and symbolic use of sun imagery within culture (like the Japanese flag or 13th century religious paintings showing rays of light symbolizing spiritual illumination or sun and star symbols in drawings of ancient cultures). Contemporary sources include the classic scene in the TV series Star Trek - when the starship enterprise takes off and you see the phenomena of streaking stars or the stage crafted pyrotechnics of light blasting across or behind at a modern rock concert. And there are milder images from nature that show the same patterns in things such as flowers and spider webs. The end result is a reading or redefining of a cultural archetype (star pattern and image).

COLOR: “is the quantitative color scale we have defined when one experiences the spectrum of light”

Color is a jumping off point for the paintings where I can keep visual movement going thru symmetry and use color as a signifier for a variety of ideas (symbolic and metaphorical). Such as I am working on a painting called Red Atomic that uses movement and color (red) to capture the burst of an atomic blast or the hot cinnamon flavor of the hard candy called Red’s Atomic Balls. Within the paintings color is a central issue here - how colors work together formally and how I personally distill external color sources into painting content.

Technically, my process includes the use of aggressive mark making and scratching with inks and sharp tools, restaining and sanding, symmetrical drawing, and painterly characteristics such as color contrast, plasticity, and multiple layering of colors. Formally, these paintings strive for balance between flat space versus depth, and color sensations that come out of color juxtapositions.

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