BIOGRAPHY:
JULES ANSLOW
Jules
left her home state of Ohio to come to the Northwest in 1985. She began working
for established ceramic jewelry artists here before developing and selling her
own jewelry and pottery. Her sculptural pop-cartoon painting style in acrylic
on wood has evolved steadily over the last twenty years, born from the
possibilities she found in slab-rolled clay.
From multi-level cutout paintings to three-dimensional murals, Jules
uses every opportunity to combine 2D and 3D for a larger-than-life effect. She created two of the pigs for Pike Place
Market’s “Pigs on Parade 2007”.
Jules
also currently curates, promotes and teaches for the studio/gallery she
co-founded in 2006, Lowell Art Works in Everett, and serves as its president.
Influences:
Joan Miro, Renee Magritte, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Paul
Klee, Alexander Calder, Antoni Gaudi, Salvador Dali, Hans Arp, Ray and Charles
Eames, Ben Anslow, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Tawnie Anslow-Follis,
Albert Einstein, Karl Popper, Sandra J. Anslow, Toastmaster, Sunbeam, Ty
Follis, Paul Rubens, Art Clokey, Edgar Degas, Nikki de Saint-Phalle, Jane
Goodall, Pearl Jam, Henri Matisse, David Byrne, Wassily Kandinsky, Jean-Paul
Sartre, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, surrealists, dadaists, outsiders.
In addition to painting, illustration and murals, Jules is currently enjoying
experimenting with furniture design/construction and silversmithing.
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Statement
My painting style could be described as neo-Dada surreal pop cartoon. I enjoy creating pieces that inhabit the
space several doors past mildly absurd, that invite the viewer to temporarily
abandon decorum and expectation. I find
the freedom I crave in this approach to say anything and everything, or nothing
at all loudly, often within the same piece.
I work primarily in acrylic on wood I cut out with jigsaw, to make
paintings, mural components and furniture.
I also work on canvas and paper. (I do adore the Space Needle, though I also
enjoy placing it in ridiculous artistic peril.)
Art for me is an extension
of my arms and legs. A juxtaposition of objects
or an unusual shape is what usually starts my wheels turning. I tend to be initially inspired by the
visual, shape and color; meanings usually surface to me later, but occasionally
the reverse happens. I'm drawn to
curving lines, bright colors, sparkly, shiny things which I collect and hoard
in my nest...
I dream about paint; my
sketchbook sleeps beside the bed. Often
I find inspiration in the tools themselves;
jigsaw, sanders, brushes, airbrush, and hand tools. I love when a piece is about two-thirds done,
as it turns that corner from materials to art.
One of my favorite
pictures is of Alexander Calder in his cluttered studio, surrounded by bits and
pieces of things, raw materials oozing with ideas. What really makes me giddy is to find out that
something I've done has planted a seed, inspired someone else to explore a new
direction or lit a spark in their imagination.
That's what art is about, to me; exponential possibilities.
© Jules Anslow 2009