The Kiss Drawing

— Artist Statement — I was born. When I was about 6, I started drawing. Later, I started painting. That's still what I'm doing. What I know, I put into my work. I am interested in visible or tangible things that ARE, rather than Opinion. In my work, there are pre-formed, conventional, depersonalized, factual elements — impartial objects. I am concerned with the wholeness of a thing remaining within the boundaries of knowledge. It is within this boundary that I strive to conceal and reveal known objects at the same time. We have an existing language of words, signs, symbols, shapes, formulas, treatises, poems and the like — whole bodies of belief and knowledge that can, presumably, describe and penetrate anything and everything. Yet, I am forced to recognize that the system which enables me to form a piece of art and to think coherently cannot define how I uniquely think or feel, or even how I picture myself and everything outside myself. The plane of my work has always been real things — REAL MOMENTS RESTING IN TIME, where the ideational and perceptual worlds intersect to form image, idea, icon, and space, and — where I, and therefore the viewer, is projected through to another reality. Technique is inextricably tied to the content of my work. By working in all mediums, I work with numerous techniques. As a painter, acrylic is my medium of choice. My 3D & sculptural materials range from chicken wire to wood to concrete blocks to whatever material I find in my field of sight. The methods I use in printmaking (woodblock, silkscreen, blueprints, lithographs) all combine multiple processes. For me there is no hierarchy among these mediums and techniques; yet, drawing is the foundation for all my work. It’s is the way I speak the best, the clearest. — Brief Bio — On March 6 (the anniversary of Michelangelo’s birthday), J. Worth Allen (“Jay”) was born in Daylight, Tennessee. He grew up in Austin. Studied in Memphis, London, Oxford, New York, Los Angeles—. Has exhibited in New York, Texas, California, London, Edinburgh, France, and beyond. At 16, he was accepted into the top 3 art schools in the nation, each, with full scholarships: Pratt Institute/Fine Art, The Art Institute of Chicago and The Art Academy in Memphis, which won out (via a cartographical nudge from his dad).