I am honored and pleased that my Diamonds in the Rough was a part of the largest show ever mounted at Eastern Kentucky University’s Giles Gallery. Order and Chaos is this year’s Chautauqua Series theme, 
and the juror for their exhibition was the distinguished Robert L. Croker of Philadelphia, who chose award winners in eight media. He wrote, “I winnowed the field from over 400 entries to 73. I weighed, to a greater or lesser extent, the following characteristics: inventiveness, originality, and technical skill in employing materials and techniques. The level of technical skill in all the entries was gratifyingly high. There were few entries that I thought addressed the issue of Chaos in any cogent manner. This may be because it’s an impossible task, the principle of ordered experience being the linchpin of visual art.” Croker’s perspective goes to the heart of my own continued aesthetic pursuit. The collage construction is another of my abstract studies which seeks to bring a harmonious resolution out of apparent disorder. The ongoing investigation goes back to a 2007 solo show that I called KOSMOS. It continues with my recent collage on canvas, Empress of Wings, the largest I have created so far. As I have done before, I shall follow up and share some compositional crops of this new artwork, exploring the design relationships that make these efforts so rewarding for me.
Diamonds in the Rough (detail)
collage construction by J A Dixon
total size: 36 x 36 inches
available for purchase