Dear Jules, I know you by your glasses. You crawl like a lion.
I am captivated by, Feral Jules (2024), a small work on wood panel. You, on all fours, turn to face into a flashlight. What human animal would do that! Your hands are planted on the ground, and your foot is a plastic glove full of water.
I prefer the works without words in them. I like the words extracted from the works:
stay single
forever
get married
before 30
see rock city
A speech bubble housing an embryo spouts from the belly button of the figure, Jackson’s mother, in What Jeanne Saw (2023), a monochromatic work painted in smooth blue, pink, and purple. The belly button is represented by an ‘x.’ It is a lovely moment ripe for symbolism. The embryo bubble is set apart from the speech bubbles, which originate from a magnifying glass and depict scenes from a life. I consider the embryo to be a type of speech coming from the stomach. I consider bellybutton ‘x’ as ‘x,’ as in algebra, as an unknown to be solved for in the context of an equation. The ‘x’ represents a baby born into the equation of a family. I consider the ‘x’ as a barrier to reentry. The mother was born, and her umbilical cord was cut, conclusively. ‘x,’ can’t go back!
Two needle felted heads face one another in the center of the room. Their hair looks real from the back. They are tender like toddlers. In the painted works, the brush work is smooth, at times a bit sketched, using a small amount of paint on the brush. Jackson paints a great deal of fluffy and shiny hair. The compositions feel dynamic and complete. Some of the paintings have background with great atmosphere and depth, and I want to urge the artist to reconsider the backgrounds of some of the works with flatter backgrounds.
The sac is a recurring motif in Good Luck Jules. Two sacs drain fluid from incisions in Jules’ chest in Foreshortened Jules (2024). A figure holds two amniotic sacs in Jeanne and Josiah and Jules (2023), twins—or two possibilities of one person in parallel. The work is composed as a Madonna and child portrait. The sacs glow yellow against the lavender shawl of their guardian. The fetuses have hair and glasses. They turn to each other as though they are seated at separate tables, looking over the back of a restaurant booth. In Five Jules (2024), four people rendered in greys, are illuminated by a yellow orb. In the orb is a person floating, tethered by an umbilical cord. Maybe a sac is safety for formation, but in this show, a sac is also a display case.
Is that Jackson’s mom in the purple collared shirt on the other side of his hospital bed in Foreshortened Jules? Based on how he painted her here and in What Jeanne Saw, I imagine Jackson and his mom get along well and he thinks of her as a whole person. Someone with a history and life beyond her relation to him.
The show is high vibrancy and earnest. I commend the openness of painting an autobiographical show. I wonder how it felt the night of the opening. I wonder, how does it feel for the artist to be open, and does he consider it risky? In a scene of vulnerability, Jules, distressed, lies on top of someone, blissful, near a river.
Good Luck Jules is on view at COOP Gallery in Nashville, TN through June 22, 2024.
