FULL CIRCLE

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
--T.S. Eliot

Whatever their diameters, circles always feel full and complete, yet expectant. A circle embodies perfection while it also promises new possibilities and openings to fill. And the circle, no matter its outline, seems to hold eternity within it, forever bringing us back to our origins, albeit with fresh visions.

 

During this most recent creative cycle, I have revisited and revived modes of working that date all the way back to my ‘twig work.’ Born of necessity in Paris in 1966, when I could no longer afford paint, I turned to my surroundings and began stitching twigs to raw canvas in order to continue following the urge of making things I have had since I was a small child. I have continued working with fibers, as well as drawing and painting, and I pay homage to those wood twigs in this show with new ones made out of porcelain. Though I have kept experimenting, manipulating materials has remained my constant since kindergarten, the dexterity of my craft and the possibilities of imagination ever widening out like concentric circles.  

 

The circle, that ubiquitous and mysterious shape of the universe that is the cell, the planets, the tiny droplets of water that ripple out and expand into waves, is an ever-recurring aspect of my work. In this exhibition, there is a series of collages, a series of ‘prophets’, and a series of  ‘descendants’. All have emerged with cyclical regularity out of themes that I have returned to again and again since I was a child building sand castles at the seashore.

Daily practice always feels like an alignment with the slow, steady and expansive rotation and evolution of our inner and outer universes. The Cheyenne perceive all things in a circular pattern.  The wheel is a full circle and thus there is not an end but rather the way to a new beginning. 

 

“Full Circle” embodies this uniquely ripe moment in this space. It is a reflective marker on an ongoing creative journey.  Your presence at this exhibition is an invitation to complete the circle.

It is with great appreciation that I wish to thank MLB Designs for generously contributing its resources to celebrate me and in support of the students of the Kansas City Art Institute.--Jason Pollen