'Jay Noble: Paintings and Drawings' on display at HACC's Lancaster Campus
Reception Sept. 18 for Lancaster artist
Sept. 14, 2012
LANCASTER – Local artist Jay Noble brings his “fascination with seeing” in an exhibit Sept. 10 – Oct. 17, 2012, at the Lancaster Campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College.
A reception for the artist is scheduled for 5-7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, in the Art Space in the East Building of the campus, 1641 Old Philadelphia Pike.
Noble’s art works within a tension between the beauty of an object and human perceptions of that object. “Perhaps the beauty of a thing itself is not any more amazing than our seeing it,” he said. His small drawings include intricately detailed depictions of houseplants in his studio and a series that includes "Elephant in the Room, Shift and Swim.” Noble plays with viewer perceptions by offering what appears to be abstract works celebrating rhythm, shape and color. But after gazing a bit longer, the viewer might spot an elephant or some other recognizable object.
“I'd like everyone to enjoy this aspect of the work from the start,” Noble said. “My hope is that the experience of abstract visual forces at work in these paintings is not spoiled when a nameable figure is spotted.”
Noble said he erases as many marks as he adds. To erase pencil marks, he uses gouache, white opaque water color paint, instead of a rubber eraser. This mix of wet and dry media not only keeps his work “hovering somewhere between drawing and painting,” but also reflects his self-described romantic notion of the human being as a “dry and wet thing,” he said. The media become a natural extension of the artist's own humanity. A similar philosophy guides his use of oil and tempera, a water-based medium.
Noble is an adjunct instructor at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and York College of Pennsylvania. His work has been shown in exhibitions in colleges, universities, museums, and commercial galleries in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Indiana. He is a graduate of American University with a master's degree in painting.
Hours for the Art Space are 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday. For more information, contact Ilene Rosenberg at the Lancaster Campus of HACC, 717-948-1806 or e-mail at irrosenb@hacc.edu.
