I try to portray the relationship between balance and growth with my work. This journey is a never ending one and has encompassed most of my work, in some form or another. I paint to explain those things that are unexplainable, those feelings, directions and situations that allow for balance through faith and adversity, the only road to truth growth.
Lately I have been playing with eddies, streams and how the flow of air, water, circumstance and life equate to one another. The balances that we strive for but never can quite establish on our own power. The current carries on regardless.
All work aside from those listed as being in a private collection are available please feel free to contact me if you any questions about my work including pricing, or commissions at: jlshake@gmail.com
Larger pieces not listed in the store can be made available by request.
Inspirations and other statements
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 6:28-29 KJV Bible
"Each of the their actions is, at once, that action and it's mirror image, which posesses the special diginty of images, and this awareness prevents them from succumbing for a single moment to chance and forgetfulness."
Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities
"This is an interior landscape. It is inside. It is private. Respect the privacy of the material. These pieces were written in silence. The courage of the play is to speak them. The discipline of the play is not to violate them. Let the audience feel your love of privacy even though there is no privacy."
Leonard Cohen - How to Speak Poetry
" We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey."