Pangaea on exhibit at Slemp Gallery

                   
Message from the Artist:
            The title of the show, “Pangaea” refers to the idea that at one time all the world’s continents were together.  I sometimes felt that putting together a show with such differing themes and mediums was akin to putting the continents back together again.

            In my work I try to portray the feeling of absurdity I often experience in everyday life.   I often react to ordinary objects, like the instructions in Braille at a drive through ATM, out of their “regular” context. Many of the subjects portrayed are filtered through the lens of my sometimes caustic humor.  I blame my Dutch ancestry and Calvinist upbringing for the symbolic or narrative imagery that is so very dear to me.

            In my recent paintings, I have purposefully been working in a small “Icon” friendly format. Working as a muralist, most of my work has been on a scale measured in square feet not inches.  The small scale of most of this series gives me an opportunity to try mediums (like egg tempera and encaustics) that I would not have time to explore in a larger scale painting.  Recently, I have also been experimenting with woodcut printing in my narratives.  Also, I have included several paintings exploring the idea of isolating visual textures to express a particular feeling of a region.      

Artist Biography:
            Jim Veenstra’s murals are displayed in private residences, institutions, and commercial spaces across the United States and some other countries, as well.  He has painted these masterpieces, some as large as 40 feet tall, for the past 18 years.  He has also appeared on HGTV’s Dreambuilders program.

            Veenstra, who grew up in New Mexico, learned of the college  through Alice Harrington, MECC Professor of Art.  Harrington and her husband, Jack, were Veenstra’s instructors when he attended Illinois College as an art student.  He later went on to attend the Hoffberger School of Art at the Maryland Art Institute under the tutelage of well-known artist Grace Hartigan.

            After college, Veenstra  obtained a job with a company that specialized in decorative finishes. Eventually, he created a mural department within the company.  His murals can now be seen in settings such as the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and The Harborplace in Baltimore.  In addition to his mural work, Veenstra has taught computer graphics,2D design, and decorative painting as an Adjunct in the  Arts and Humanities Department at University of Virginia College at Wise, and Mountain Empire Community College.