Jason Hugger: Lost and Found in Still Life

PHOENIX - Oct. 30, 2013 - PRLog -- Jason Hugger’s work displays mechanical objects and tchotchkes in our familiar desert milieu, but he transports the viewer to an unfamiliar and eerie world. Intense focus on the details and textures of the substantial objects allows them to develop their own topographies in the desert scene. Hugger transforms unremarkable objects by placing them in incongruent environments. By treating these knick-knacks as objects of reverence, he gives the viewer the opportunity to enter into these worlds, imagining the scenarios that brought these objects and their backgrounds together.

Artist Statement: For many years I’ve been interested in viewing still-life from a landscape perspective. Forms in still-life not only fulfill the objectivity of their own being, but they also fulfill the narrative of the environment they occupy. From my point of view, objects normally perceived as traditional still-life form themselves into landscape. Inanimate objects such as discarded machines, shards of broken glass, and transistors take on a landscape characteristic as these pieces, every day objects, assume a sense of mystery that they never had in their original lifetimes. From many perspectives, these transformed objects reveal more than their individual histories – in new combinations they take on second lives. It is a vivid reminder that even the most familiar things are ephemeral, inevitably changing with time.

Jason Hugger was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1973. Jason started drawing at an early age and received a scholarship to attend Columbus College of Art and Design in 1991. Upon graduation in 1995, Hugger traveled the country and settled in Phoenix. Jason’s paintings and silverpoint drawings reflect his love of still life and landscape, which he combines to create imagery he calls “surreal still-life”. Jason is a Veteran and lives with his wife in Phoenix.