Queue. Jon Sours, artist
By Gina Malone
In high school days, Jon Sours was keen on studying filmmaking. Art, also an interest, he describes as, at that time, a “somewhat less exciting pursuit.” During college, he worked at the Dundee Theater, a single-screen art house in Omaha, NE. “But gradually,” he says, “the scales were tipping more in favor of the painting courses I was taking at school and less so with the seemingly unrealistic pursuit of filmmaking.”
Pointe. Jon Sours, artist
He graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a degree in painting, and eventually found himself in Asheville working at Blue Spiral 1 Gallery. “I worked at the gallery for 16 years and learned a lot about the art world,” he says, “all while slowly tinkering away at my own paintings and works on paper. About a year and a half ago, I decided to step away from my job and pursue artmaking full time.”
Sours creates two bodies of work: figurative paintings and intricate collaged works on paper. “The collage work is primarily made from images found in National Geographic magazine, as well as the other assorted National Geographic publications,” he says.
He owns a stash of hundreds and hundreds of issues. “I methodically go through these page by page and tear out anything that might be useful—people, animals, random objects—and then carefully and sometimes painstakingly cut out each subject with a large pair of scissors.”
Large trays keep these elements organized by category, size and subject matter. “Building the collage, or ‘stacker’ as I refer to them, involv
Extra Special Hot. Jon Sours, artist
es finding relationships between these figures and animals that had not previously existed, linking and stacking them into tall pyramid shapes, or sometimes long and winding queues.”
What results from Sours’ creative mind are complex configurations of figures connected to and balancing upon one another in strange, lovely and playful ways—one figure standing upon the shoulders, back or head of another, or hands reaching across spaces to clasp one another.
Fellow artist Tamie Beldue has great respect for the art that Sours creates. “His paintings demonstrate an excellent command of the medium with nuanced subtleties of color, form and juxtaposition of found and observational imagery, simultaneously balancing realism and surrealism.”
Sours’ stacker pieces are being displayed as part of Blue Spiral 1’s Collection exhibition, running through Wednesday, June 25, in the Lower Level Gallery. “In his Stacker series, Sours transforms found imagery from National Geographic into intricately collaged compositions that are both playful and intentional, words that could also be used to describe Sours himself,” says Blair Guggenheim, assistant director of Blue Spiral 1. “In each piece, figures are meticulously sourced, cut and arranged to form surreal yet cohesive visual narratives—such as a gymnast straddling a meteorite, seamlessly linked to a toddler, a squirrel monkey and a hand-standing figure atop a parasol. Through these unexpected links, Sours creates a delicate choreography of interconnected forms, suggesting that the stasis of the world is, in fact, held together by a dynamic and collective balance of individual forces.”
White Wedding. Jon Sours, artist
For Sours, there is the visual, process-centered aspect to his stacker works but also existing alongside, he hopes, shades of meaning inherent in the configurations. “While I like to think they could exist simply as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing compositions, they also could be seen as a commentary on the interconnectedness of life and/or as a celebration of the diversity and beauty of life on earth,” he says. “That being said, I hope there is also a sense of humor and absurdity that comes across in the sometimes playful or haphazard manner in which these people and animals are stacked together, sometimes seemingly moments from collapse.”
See Jon Sours’ work through June 25 in the exhibition Collection at Blue Spiral 1. Learn more at BlueSpiral1.com and at JonSours.com, and follow Sours on Instagram @jonsours. Blue Spiral 1 is located at 38 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville. Hours are Sunday through Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
