Artist Statement: An artist shows you something in whatever he paints, that you did not fully know or understand. It does not matter if you can't even put into words what that is, neither could the artist, or he would have just said it and be done with it. I prefer to let images speak for themselves. I don't like bullshitting about my art. It is very personal, spiritual, and sometimes very painful. For those who want to see my art translated from image to word, I am also a poet.

What is my art? It is the world as I see it. It is what I see when I when I walk in dream, it is what I see when I have been reduced to rubble or am basking in divinity. It is what I see when I look at you. I don't paint weird stuff to be weird, I don't do it to experiment with styles, and materials, I don't do it to explore anything. I certainly don't do it to shock anyone. I don't understand the concept of conceptual art. When you push your self to that point where you have always turned back. Where you think you have nothing left to give. I go beyond that point and bring back what I see. I do this at great personal peril, I do it because no one else will, and these are things that need to be said.



Other thoughts and quotes by the artist -

"Creating a masterpiece is like being in love. You and the work are 1. You can't force it, you can't pretend, you can't walk the walk or talk the talk. There is no formula. there is no set of rules to follow. you can't plan it. you can't control it. You don't formulate it in your head and make it so. It simply is." "

"I am not interested in art, I am interested in exceptional art."

"people say there is a fine line between genius and insanity. I am not sure I made the grade."

"I can't afford good art, so I have to make my own. I decided to try and trade my art with others, but no one wanted it, So I had to make better art. As my sensitivity to impeccable craftsmanship and mastery of painting grows, soon, I will have to make the best art. I will accept nothing less"

"Why paint one thing when you could paint many things all at once."

"Art isn't an escape for me, it is an act of desperation. to express feelings that I cannot find the words or actions to express."

"painting for me is like building a house of cards. You can't plan it... each stroke of the brush depends on the placement of the stroke before it. and like a house of cards, a few failed moves can destroy a masterpiece. we walk a fine line."



View of starting a painting -
I am often asked how I come up with my ideas for a painting. This is difficult to explain, because most people are looking at it from a completely different point of view. A lot of artists get an idea, and seek to represent that idea. This is the way most people think, and the process that they expect. To understand what I do, you have to forget this way of thinking. What I do when I want to paint has less to do with painting something specific, and more to do with seeking the truth. In life, there are many truths. for example for all practical purposes, 1+1=2. In a visual sense, fractals, are an image truth. A fractal is a graphic representation of a mathematical equation that represents and image, pattern, or tendency for objects, concepts, and their behavior in our world. They are perfect in every way because like 1+1=2, they are simply true. Here is an example of a fractal.


It is beyond me, and beyond most people without a college math major, to understand what this fractal represents, but it does represent truth, and will correlate to a specific formula or instance in our world.

When I paint, I do not care about showing a specific image. I may have concepts or ideas, but what I am looking for is truth. I will paint and paint.. and eventually, if I am lucky, I will start to see certain colors, or lines, or patterns that ring of truth. When I see these, my speed picks up.. I get excited and frenzied. The image begins to focus and it becomes apparent exactly what it is I am trying to do. Sometimes I start painting one thing, and end up with a totally different subject. Who's to say this is in anyway wrong or unsuccessful? because as I said, my goal isn't to capture a specific image, but to capture truth. So as long as I do that, I feel free to let my art wander and drift to wherever it wants to go. Technique, skill, and practice, are only a means to represent the real difficulty in my art, which is the search for ultimate patterns and shapes and figures that express what this universe is really about.

"To paint abstract well requires a great deal of thought... but none of it should occur while painting. Painting should be a reflection of what you learn, think. and experience in life. It is the performance you practice for 12 hours a day as you walk and talk." 2004 GFS.

Question:
Hi everybody, I'm either crazy or on to something. Lately, instead of fighting my paintings and putting what "I" think should be on them, I let them sit and germinate so to speak. Let me explain, on a canvas or paper, I take large amounts of paint in various colors and fill up the space with them. Then I let the "paintings" sit on the wall for hours, days or in the case of oils, weeks. During that time I stare, flip the picture around and stare some more until the "true" picture emerges.Then I can continue the painting. What I have found, is if I ignore the true nature (that's my Zen coming out) of the painting, and paint something else, I end up hating it and wiping it out or painting over it, thus starting the whole process over again. Does this happen to anybody else? Since I've "let go" and let the process flow, I've been much happier with my work. Abstract is already a difficult process without additional baggage and hopefully I've learned to relax and learn to communicate through

it doesn't have to take weeks.. the more you fine tune your perception, the quicker those images can come forth.. also, the more you get in touch with your mediums, the more you can control them and expedite the process. ideally, you never have to wait much for drying paint because your perceptions and control are instantaneous. as for not putting things you "think" should be in them.. good, get rid of the concept, at least until you can control it, or more likely abandon the concept.. do your thinking on your own time. it shouldn't intrude into your painting.. great paintings happen because the artists KNOWS what he/she is doing.. not internally debating the process... of course this rarely works in practice, but the more you work at it, the closer to this ideal you might become. You can find patterns in things all you want, or pre plan paintings from your visions or imaginations... they will be faulty... flawed by the process of translation. become the interface between the two.. the conduit.. think all day and night.. think in your dreams.. but when you paint.. KNOW.. let heaven and hell speak through your, keeping only the sanity to guide one or the other forth or away with the slightest nudge of your pinky on the brush.

I don't question what I paint much. In my mind I am a realist. I just see differently, but I paint quite accurately.
jb, 2004.
I have no faith in mankind, just faith in individual men and women. If we can lie on our death beds and say that yes, I have indeed lived and lived well, and that I speak for no man or woman but myself, and no man or woman speaks for me. then perhaps, we are a little closer to glory as a species.

jb, 11/12/04

A painting should be infinite, that which is finite is but a shadow, a convenience in time. Neither I, nor anyone lays claim to the future. I laugh at the baubles of mankind, in the end, there is only one fact,jewel,truth to all. To accurately portray it admits doubt. In doubt there is eternal possibility. As time passes they become one. I cannot fathom this universal unity. "The more you give, the more it takes, to that thin line beyond which, you really can't fake." where does that line lie within each of us?

I can't tell if it is the world or if it is me that is a ghost, but sometimes I swear I can see right through it.
jb 2/7/05

"In from the outside?", I've spent years going out from the inside.. Sometimes clarity is from stone. The fractal is dual, and goes in both directions. It is both past and future. and inbetween, lie we." James Justin Brown (july. 2005?3)

We live in a 3rd world country, with 1st world technology..
james 9/23/05

Abstract expressionism? Does anyone else find an irony in the fact that all the famous "non-objective" artists still sought to have their work be "more" non-objective than others? by denying any objectivity in artwork, and relying solely on their own and their varied observer's subjectivity, they still wanted to stand out above and beyond in some universal way, which would by definition be at least somewhat "objective".. and more so that many had egos about it? or irony in the fact that much of today's post modern emphasis on "subjectivity" even precludes the possibility of objectivity? As if all that we don't happen to understand is therefore magic and open to infinite interpretation? Seems to me the best approach at expression would be one of universal objectivity, which implies a hierarchy of the universality being above your perspective, but hoping your perspective is better than most at being an accurate reflection, and will affect more people "subjectively", while still being on the path towards some actual universal accuracy. The danger in objectivity is quite obvious in that being wrong can be disastrous.. History is littered with the actions and resulting bodies of people who probably "thought" they were quite objective, however that does no mean there is such a thing. In fact, most of histories greatest artists hit upon it IMO. Looking at great works from the past.. they are great because they transcended their current views or the views of their time... Yet most of our "greatest" work today, denies even that possibility, and assumes some form of belligerent view that such truth is not possible. This inevitably leaves much of our "great" art to it's temporal place, and puts today's avante gaurde in no different a position than the early impressionists and expressionists of their respective eras.
james 10/8/05

For an artist, the only thing more important than making art, is making art well. jb 10/15/05