Alison Jardine
Alison Jardine, Venus Dreaming (Detail)
Born and educated in Yorkshire and London, England, Alison Jardine arrived with her family in Texas in 2003, where she established herself as a professional artist. Jardine's work has been included in numerous local and national juried competitions, and is in collections worldwide. Alison Jardine enjoys writing, and has contributed to arts publications, as well as worked as an art instructor in public schools.
Artist Statement: PixelNation
PixelNation grew from my interest in merging traditional oil painting with digital technology. So many of our memories and so much of our lives are stored, shared and created on the web and digital media that I began to explore the idea that the method of creating the work becomes secondary when the resulting work is translated into a digital image, a collection of pixels that can be turned off, or activated. Is this image of a painting a new work, or just a copy?
Since 2009, I have used the motif of the pixel, representing a core fragment of new culture, to make traditional paintings through the lens of my digital-age aesthetic: back-lit colors and graphical interfaces. My paintings are a new kind of landscape painting; nature, particularly ‘light’ as concept and as a physical phenomenon, is a repeating theme in all my work. This is rooted in the ancient forests and trees of Yorkshire where I was born, and the wide-open wilderness of the Moors, whose stories and dramas forged my visual and artistic identity as I grew.
My process begins with location-based photographs and sketches, or photographs from my own family and past, that I then digitally manipulate and collage. These images might form the basis for a painting or monotype, or be realized as a digital artwork. In my present series, after I have completed an oil painting, I photograph it and digitally manipulate the resulting image. This in turn forms the basis of a new oil painting, and the cycle repeats.
I recently completed a 365-day iPad drawing project, in which I created an unthemed, diaristic iPad drawing each day that I shared on social media. The works existed both for social media and because of it, stored on hundreds of thousands of individual computers when viewed. The social media environment is challenging the notion of an ‘original’ work ~ although I have nominal ownership of the artwork, nothing but the restraint of the viewer prevents them from keeping a copy ~ or it is the original? ~ on their computer.
This project has allowed me to explore the idea of social art as a non-owned object, in which ubiquity has replaced originality as the valuable commodity. I can place this art wherever I want to in our virtual world, and I have no control over what happens to it, or how many times it is reproduced or altered. In fact, endless reproduction becomes a desirable aim.
Any artist’s work reflects their own environment, and mine exists exactly where I do: within nature, and within digital media, and both these worlds are made of light, the unifying motif of my artworks.
— Alison Jardine, February 2011
Selected Exhibitions
Artist Statement: PixelNation
PixelNation grew from my interest in merging traditional oil painting with digital technology. So many of our memories and so much of our lives are stored, shared and created on the web and digital media that I began to explore the idea that the method of creating the work becomes secondary when the resulting work is translated into a digital image, a collection of pixels that can be turned off, or activated. Is this image of a painting a new work, or just a copy?
Since 2009, I have used the motif of the pixel, representing a core fragment of new culture, to make traditional paintings through the lens of my digital-age aesthetic: back-lit colors and graphical interfaces. My paintings are a new kind of landscape painting; nature, particularly ‘light’ as concept and as a physical phenomenon, is a repeating theme in all my work. This is rooted in the ancient forests and trees of Yorkshire where I was born, and the wide-open wilderness of the Moors, whose stories and dramas forged my visual and artistic identity as I grew.
My process begins with location-based photographs and sketches, or photographs from my own family and past, that I then digitally manipulate and collage. These images might form the basis for a painting or monotype, or be realized as a digital artwork. In my present series, after I have completed an oil painting, I photograph it and digitally manipulate the resulting image. This in turn forms the basis of a new oil painting, and the cycle repeats.
I recently completed a 365-day iPad drawing project, in which I created an unthemed, diaristic iPad drawing each day that I shared on social media. The works existed both for social media and because of it, stored on hundreds of thousands of individual computers when viewed. The social media environment is challenging the notion of an ‘original’ work ~ although I have nominal ownership of the artwork, nothing but the restraint of the viewer prevents them from keeping a copy ~ or it is the original? ~ on their computer.
This project has allowed me to explore the idea of social art as a non-owned object, in which ubiquity has replaced originality as the valuable commodity. I can place this art wherever I want to in our virtual world, and I have no control over what happens to it, or how many times it is reproduced or altered. In fact, endless reproduction becomes a desirable aim.
Any artist’s work reflects their own environment, and mine exists exactly where I do: within nature, and within digital media, and both these worlds are made of light, the unifying motif of my artworks.
— Alison Jardine, February 2011
Selected Exhibitions
- Solo Show ~PixelNation ~ presented by Ro2 Art, Dallas, TX (December 2011)
- Six Summit Ga2011llery, Ivoryton, CT ~ Juxtaposition group show. Juror: Alyssa Monks ~ September – November
- Bathhouse Cultural Center ~ 30th Anniversary show. Curator: Enrique Cervantes ~ August/October
- Artist’s Talk: Finding your Inner Voice and Unique Style as an Artist ~ ArtCentre of Plano
- Solo Show ~ PixelNation ~ ArtCentre of Plano, Plano, TX ~ September
- The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX ~ Members’ show ~ Meltdown – August
- Galleri Urbane ~ Juried Summer Show, featuring the work of ten artists ~ July/August
- SEEDs and Spare pArts fundraising auctions (Dallas)
- PAA’s 125 Show – I co-Chaired and co-organized this juried exhibit for North Texas artists
- Solo Show ~ Intermittent Light ~Laura Moore Fine Art, McKinney, TX
- Public artwork ~ Henderson Avenue, Dallas
- The Art Gallery at the Courtyard Theatre – Plano – Group Show of four artists’ work – “Wild At Heart”
- Artscape at the Dallas Arboretum ~ Juried Fine Art Fair
- Ugallery Paperwork Artshow ~ San Fransisco
- 42nd PAA Members’ Show ~ ArtCentre of Plano (winner – First Place) Juror: Prof. Luke Sides
- K Space Contemporary (Corpus Christi, TX) ~ Third Coast National ~ Juror: Trenton Doyle Hancock.
- Xue Contemporary Gallery, Design District, Dallas (Irving Blvd.) ~ group exhibit, Mind Rules Matter
- Bath House Cultural Center (White Rock Lake, Dallas, TX) ~ Día de los Muertos ~ Juried show. Juried by Bath House Curator Enrique Fernández Cervantes.
- Twitter Art Show ~ Moss, Norway (group show organized over twitter, to raise money for children’s books for a library)
- Art Conspiracy, Dallas TX
- Co-Chair and Co-Organizer of the Multicultural Art Show in Plano, TX (Plano Art Association
- The MAC (Mckinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas) Members’ show
- Studio2Gallery, in Austin, TX ~ “Poet Tree”, juror Tina Weitz
- Affordable Art Fair, Manhattan, New York. Presented by ugallery.com.
- The Arts Gallery, Plano, TX ~ PAA’s 125 Show ~ Juried Exhibition
- Judged the Art of Santa Monica (Elan) competition in Santa Monica, CA, USA.
- The LLoyd Gill Gallery, UK. Invited to be key exhibitor at a group show titled ‘Contemporary Translation in Suprematism‘
- Pearl @ Commerce in Dallas ~ Group show: “Art & Toys” an invitational one-day art & music event at the , featuring 12 local artists.
- Artscape at the Dallas Arboretum, March 20 to 21st ~ Juried Fine Art Fair
- Solo Show – New Works. This launched the Jardine Studio Gallery on Northwest Highway in Dallas
- Elan Art contest ~ Grand Prize Winner
- Plano Art Association 41st Annual Members Show, Grand Prize Winner
- Invitational Show: The Best of 2009, TVAA Gallery at the Downtown Gallery
- Art Conspiracy, Charity Art, Auction & Music Event, Dallas
- Grandon Gallery, AZ ~ group show “Twitter 140″
- TVAA’s Downtown Gallery, Pearl St, Dallas TX ~ curated art show “The Self Portrait: Who Are You?”
- 44th McKinney Art Festival ~ juried exhibition ~ prize winner
- Artists Showplace, Dallas, TX ~ juried exhibition (portrait)
- Upstream Gallery Ninth Annual Faces Exhibition ~ juried exhibition
