ARTIST STATEMENT

In Search: (Re)building Myth is a body of oil paintings, drawings, and sculptures that explores the search for meaning in a fractured existential landscape. The work investigates the stories we tell ourselves and asks how these stories shape us, the importance they have in our lives, and what we do when they become fractured and fall apart.

In order to ask these sorts of questions, B.J. Parker set a group of characters in a near future post-apocalyptic St. Louis devoid of society. The characters wander through a dilapidated city, physically working to restructure a ruined landscape of myth. By creating space for these characters to explore a ruined landscape, B.J. is also creating space for the viewer to similarly explore an interior landscape. The paintings reflect snapshots of this post-apocalyptic world while reimagined icons function as artifacts from the future world.

Overall, the work invites the viewer to reflect upon the way in which stories shape, determine, and bring meaning to life, as well as the ways in which the viewer might find themselves mysteriously caught up in a broader story that requires further exploration.

ARTIST BIO

B. J. Parker is a realist artist based in Saint Louis, Missouri. His artistic approach amalgamates the ideas he has learned from studying with Ron Cheek at the Texas Academy of Figurative Art, Sadie Valeri, and Patricia Watwood. B. J. is committed to furthering the realist tradition within the contemporary art world and in his work he explores the in-betweeness of the human condition through figurative creations in graphite, charcoal, and oil. He employs traditional practices dating back to Renaissance as a means of meditating on the suffering and triumphs of life. Through engaging the liminality between pain and joy, his work seeks to make space for the individual to consider the value of her or his own life.