Jim Worster

Jim Worster
201 Mercer Street
Matfield Green, Kansas 66862
670-753-3407
http://www.jimworster.com

Artist’s Statement
I believe the land is alive, just as I am or as any other creature is. If you need convincing, go there, go to a place where the hand of man has not altered the land too much. Somewhere still a bit wild and quiet, like a National Park in the American West or the Flint Hills of Kansas.
When I go to such a place I tune into the Earth for peaceful contemplation. I listen to the wind sing in my ears. I feel the pulsating life in the ground below me. I smell the soil and marvel at all the life which springs from it. I often feel like I’m seeing a fleeting glimpse of a timeless process. Just a moment of eternity at work. Life gives life.
As a landscape painter/photographer, I start with a camera which I use as a sketching tool, to compose, to isolate, to focus, to simplify and later to paint from. I rely on the camera for the facts and my instincts for everything else. In the moment, on the land, I just want to align myself to what the land is saying to me. I listen and look for paintings. They soon begin to make themselves known in some way. With the rustle of the wind or the shriek of a hawk overhead, the living land gets my attention. When I’m in harmony with the Earth I connect at a deep level, I start to see and feel paintings all around me, as if the Earth wants to be seen and felt in a special, singular way. It’s only then when I feel truly alive. The land becomes my muse, my inspiration. Nature whispers, “This is the one. Photograph here, Paint this.” I listen and I do.

Selected Exhibitions
2009, Smokey Hills Public Television Signature Auction, Hays and Bunker Hill, Kansas
2009. Kansas City Artist Colition Fund Raiser, Kansas City, Missouri, January
2008, Five State Photography Exhibition, Hays Art Council, Hays, Kansas, December
2008, Pioneer Bluffs Annual Hog Roast, Matfield Green, October
2008, 5.4.7 Arts Center of Greensburg Art Eco Art Auction, Wichita, September
2008, Pioneer Bluffs Symphony in the Flints Hills Art Exhibit, June
2008, Hutchinson Art Center, 46th Annual Outdoor Art Fair
2008, Smokey Hills Public Television Signature Auction, Hays and Bunker Hill, Kansas
2007, ArtSpring Gallery, Fall Show, Salina, Kansas
2007, Kansas Public Radio, Listener’s Art Show, Lawrence, Kansas
2007, Celebrating With Art, Emporia Art Council Center, Emporia, Kansas
2006/2007 Artist in Residence at the Lumberyard, The Land Institute, Matfield Green, Kansas
2006, ACLU, Art Fundraising Auction, Kansas City, Missouri
2006, 5th Annual Prairie Art Plein Air Event, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas
2005, Greeley Art Association, Winter Show, Greeley, Colorado
2003, Arts Picnic Fine Art Exhibit, Tointon Gallery, Greeley, Colorado
2003, Greeley Art Association, Winter Show, Greeley, Colorado
2002, Self-Portraits Exhibit, Art Students League, Denver, Colorado
2002, Brick Alley Gallery, Summer Show, Loveland, Colorado
2002, Summer Art Market, Art Students League, Denver, Colorado
2002, Greeley Art Association, Winter Show, Greeley, Colorado
2001, Core New Art Space, Denver, Colorado
1995, Boulder Public Library Exhibit Space, Boulder, Colorado
1991, Boulder Art Center, Boulder, Colorado
Awards
1994, CoVisions Recognition Award, Colorado Council on the Arts, Denver, Colorado
Education
1985-1990 BFA-Bachelor of Fine Arts/Art History, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado