(ARTISTS’ TALK @ 1:00 PM)

PLEASE JOIN US TO EXPLORE an installation that echoes ancient and indigenous culture, cosmology, magic and archaeology. Huge colorful paintings and wooden sculptures will intrigue you and stimulate thinking about human life. John Hylton of Santa Cruz and created a colorful, handmade environment rich in ideas and beauty.

In his words: “My work tends to lead me into other cultures; they are private cultures made mostly of my interior space. These are “thought things” as argued by philosopher Hannah Arendt about works of art. I’m creating objects to tell a new story about cosmology, the way the ancients of North America, the British Isles, and the Oceanic areas tracked the cosmos and told stories of the stars. I am exploring blending contemporary concerns with what I see as related structures and ideas from the earliest days of civilization. Among these concerns and interests are: the timeless mystery of the ruins and artifacts of the ancients, architecture and engineered structures, and cosmology of the modern era. In part I approach this by maintaining close human contact with the materials I use. This way of using material comes from my interest in archeology. This interest grew from regular visits with my family to the Serpent Mound in southern Ohio. It was furthered with exposure to the Land Artists of the 70’s (Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, David Nash, et al) and later from artists like Magdalena Abakanowicz, Anselm Kiefer, Eva Hesse, and Martin Puryear.

I’m working with tactile issues that are imbued with a powerful and primal sensitivity. It is my struggle to reconcile these disparate but fundamentally related forces, which have influenced and continue to fuel my present work.”