Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jude Barton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jude, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I have found my most satisfying projects have been collaborative. I love the process of curation; bringing together like-minded artists to exhibit together. I have a strong affinity for modernist architectural, hard-edged aesthetics rooted in historic movements such as early Russian avant-garde, Art Concrete, Constructivism, Bauhaus, graphic design and general 20th century avant-garde. There are a number of artists in the Denver metro area who work in related styles. In 2019 I threw out the idea to a few colleagues about showing together. As a result, we met together at the 40West Reed Street Studios in Lakewood Colorado to brainstorm. I think there were five or six of us initially. It was a great conversation and we decided to go forward and continue to meet and landed on the name, Architecture of Form, for the exhibition. In 2019 I submitted our first proposal, comprised of myself and seven other artists to a Boulder arts center. However, 2019 was the first year of the Covid shut-downs and all exhibits and galleries were basically put on hold. We were undeterred and continued to discuss opportunities and refine our brand. Finally in 2020 we secured a space and moved forward now with thirteen artists and launched our first Architecture of Form exhibition. It was an amazingly beautiful show. We all collaborated and shared the expenses and the work involved in hanging the show, setting the lights, creating advertising and graphic assets and promotions,. A beautiful poster was created by Craig Rouse who has continued to create the graphic design each year since.
We grew our exhibition over five years from thirteen artists to 20 local Denver area artists and included a number of national artists. Architecture of Form is now a 501c3 Colorado non-profit.
Jude, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I was born in 1953 in Akron, Ohio, and was raised in a blue-collar community with six siblings. My interest in creative activities was ignited at a young age while watching my father complete paint-by-number panels and I later received a small gift of oil painting supplies and oil pastels. My love of geometry and drawing was encouraged and nurtured throughout my pursuit of a vocational drafting curriculum in high school. After moving to Colorado in 1976 I studied horticulture and developed a small private practice of landscape design during the early years of parenting my two sons. My involvement with garden and landscape design would later lead to my pursuit of a degree in sculpture and art history.
The foundation of my current drawings and paintings is primarily drawn from geometry and influenced by concepts of structure and order and at times chaos and entropy. I am intrigued and inspired by the ancient mathematicians, geometers and philosophers such as Euclid, Archimedes, and Fibonacci.
My goal is to point the viewer inward, to find their space between and among the lines; to respond to the tension, balance, symmetry or asymmetry, and textured layers within the space beyond the confinement of the lines. Geometric and minimalist art intrinsically removes social mores and norms, political/economic class, individual identifiers and demographics. There is a place of complex rest in the elegant simplicity of a line, a point, a circle. Every line starts with a point. Every line segment is the shortest distance between two points. Parallel lines never intersect. Knowing these truths is an axiom upon which order is tested. My work is accessible and does not seek to influence the viewer to any particular point of view other than their own discovery. My hope, however, is that they might find their own place of rest; complex or otherwise.
My aesthetic is a reassertion and examination of form and structure, rationality, and simplicity; indeed, a revitalization of modernism; of moving culture forward. I assert a restful aesthetic that emphasizes space as a material element within the structure of lines and geometric elements. Lines and structure are a threshold into the space of expectation and rest.
I would love to work directly with clients, homeowners and institutions to bring my drawings and paintings into their spaces. I believe wholeheartedly that art can be transformative.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Yes, my goal is primarily to create an aesthetic experience absent of underlying politics, social constructs. current events and transient issues that come and go on the global stage.
The goal in my art is to provide the viewer with that transformative thing that will make a person slow down a bit, sit quietly, enjoy looking, let their mind wander and rest. I definitely want my work to be compelling but not visually demanding or distracting.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
There are so many rewarding aspects of being an artist that it is hard to cull it down to just a few things. In the larger sense, for me it’s about the lifestyle and the sense of freedom and community. The interesting conversations that happen spontaneously when I am showing my work or attending the opening receptions of colleagues;
But the thing that brings me the most happiness is that my work is valued. That there is a place for my work and it feels like a solid place.
On the other hand…. it’s great to get up in the morning and go to work in my pajamas at 4:00AM. That actually might be the best thing…. :)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.judebartonart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judebarton.barton/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Judebartonfineart
- Other: https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/jude-barton
