Jim Jereb - "Two Steps," "Meeting," and "Hold"

Hello this is Jim Jereb, a printmaker from Laramie, Wyoming.  My artworks, small wood engravings, have an intimacy often associated with this size of imagery.  To begin work I frequent locations that often hold a number of people in close proximity.  As I study their movements and interactions the focus sharpens.  I look to generalize the specific identities of subjects by creating hard-edged silhouettes.  Relationships between individuals begin with basic visual tools such as composition and value transitions and are supplemented by symbolic use of people, animals, and systems.  Here circuitry panels, with their repetitive pattern of lines, represent the abundance of technology underlying so many personal actions.  By combining direct observation, sketchbook notes and my imagination these contexts create for the viewers a connection to my artistic interests.