Artwork Description
Jamie Brusnon – Bazooka Keystone
Dimensions: 60 x 48″ finished size
Year: 2022
Medium: Oil, alkyd on polyester over panel
I translate perceptual experiences of architecture and place into abstract geometric compositions using paint on canvas and found-paper collage. While some of my work has been influenced by urban settings, it is mostly derived from ancient sites and sacred architecture I’ve seen in world travel. After moving to New Mexico in 2014, the open landscape and the patinated surfaces of the region’s historic architecture have also shaped my work. I incorporate these influences into my compositions using saturated color, rhythmic intervals, geometric divisions, and tactile surfaces, reducing specific detail into formal structure.
A crucial aspect of my work is my ongoing kundalini meditation practice, which emphasizes open awareness and observation—qualities that I bring into my studio practice. My paintings are process-based, the result of working patiently in additive and subtractive layers with the physical properties of materials. In larger paintings, I use oil paint, alkyd medium and refined beeswax on polyester canvas stretched over panel. In my intimate mixed-media studies, I use “found”, stained, vintage paper, which I glue in layers and paint with acrylic and oil, building up and abrading to evoke architectural surfaces. These materials, marked by age and wear, physically mimic the qualities of ancient structures.
By emphasizing observation, the tactile physicality of materials, and patient process, my studio practice conjoins my meditation practice. The goal of this work is to embody the elusive, but penetrating and palpable sense of “presence” embedded in physical locations shaped by the passage of time and use.