The Art of Jim Stanis

Most of my pieces are not meant to represent anything specific. The image presented is supposed to remain as an enigma. There has been a variety of responses to my work. Everyone sees something different and unique.  Each person has their own idea of what it looks like, what it seems to represent or what images are hidden within. I don't want to tell the viewer what they are looking at. I want their imagination to be free to come up with their own thoughts as to what it is. The "organic" looking pieces that I create are done through a process of subconscious automation. I begin by drawing out shapes that look interesting to the eye, often making up sections as I go along. I then build on the shapes, add to them, create other shapes that fit with or compliment the others and then join them together. Having been influenced by surrealists such as Dali, Magritte and Ernst since I was very young, I am interested in work that is unusual, mysterious and presents an image that would never be seen in reality.  In addition to the surrealists, I have always admired the old masters such as Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Durer, Bosch, Bellini, Raphael, etc. I graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2001 after studying fine art there.  After that I worked at printers learning more about the digital end of things.  I took figure drawing classes on the side at the School of Representational Art in Chicago. In 2003 I traveled to Austria to study painting with Ernst Fuchs. When studying the human figure as well as the work of the old masters I became more interested in human anatomy.  I am still working to improve this knowledge though my current studies.  I am currently in graduate school for biomedical visualization - a.k.a. medical illustration at UIC.  Many people have commented over the years that some of my pieces look like viruses, cells, organisms, etc. It seemed natural that I go into this kind of work.  I am learning about the human body and the processes of physical life.  In the future I wish to employ the knowledge of the body with the skills of realism to represent the unreal and mysterious in my work.