JIM PLESH ONLINE ART GALLERY
ABOUT PLESH
Jim Plesh began his creative journey at very young age. He started drawing and painting as a kid …and never stopped. A graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh with additional studies at the Cleveland Art Institute and Cooper School of Art, he began his career as a designer with American Greetings, Cleveland, Ohio. He relocated to Chicago accepting the position of Art Director with Fairfield Publishing and taught painting within the Chicago adult education program before moving to New England where he served as VP / Creative Director for two major publishers. Having established a solid creative management foundation he founded Plesh Creative Group, Inc, for over twenty-five years recognized as one of the leading creative service firms in the paper products / publishing industry. Throughout his commercial art career Jim continued to pursue his love of fine art and photography. Having shown at various exhibits and galleries for many years he eventually opened his own gallery, The Gallery on Park Street, Medfield, MA featuring his work as well as works of the creative group.
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Jim'screative journey has taken him worldwide visiting England, France, Australia, Japan and Canada in the development of creative operations, working with creative types from artists and designers to photographers and poets. A visionary, he has nurtured hundreds of artists, developed numerous creative properties and been responsible for thousands of designs within the paper products and publishing industries.
Jim Plesh simply loves to create, whether with brush and canvas or camera and computer, he thrives on bringing an image into being. His works reflect the creative process of exploration and imagination. Through the years his paintings have evolved from realistic, representational to impressionistic and most recently, contemporary expressionistic. He now works from his studio in Bonita Springs, Florida and shows his paintings exclusively through several premier galleries.
When asked how long a painting took him to create, Plesh most likely will respond “my whole life”. And indeed his work reflects a long, proven and exceptional creative journey allowing him to paint with experienced confidence, unbridled imagination and a unique creative vision. - Nina Black
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ARTIST STATEMENT
Mine has been, and continues to be, a creative journey.
There is something magical in creating: combining color and surface, texture and tone, bringing an image into being. An inspiration, a vision – synchronized with head, hand and heart – brought to life. Whether with brush and canvas or camera and computer, I love to create. Even when I’m not painting I create within my subconscious. I see. I feel. I imagine. Then, as I paint, the work develops before my eyes, bringing forth surprising expectations. It is this phenomenon that gives me a sense of euphoria. Intent on expressing a feeling rather than rendering a representational illustration, I simply surrender to my emotion.
When I paint I aim to create something which is, in and unto itself, a new and living thing – a work of art with a life of its own – born through feeling and imagination. There are no rules with my art. After all the schooling and experience I permit myself to ignore the academics and allow invention to take place. This is the essence of creativity. I paint concepts, not pictures. Many of my paintings are illusion like, in that what you see is what you choose to see – evoking an emotion within you. I prefer to speak to your emotions with my art, as opposed to representational, photographic-like renderings. My work continues to evolve, ever changing with experimentation and imagination. I do not stay with one styling, one signature look. Repetition of styling and technique foster complacency, and complacency begets boredom, mediocrity, and self limits. That’s not what the journey’s about. Searching for new horizons and following dreams has always defined my creative journey – as it does today.
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