Exhibition featuring figurative surrealism artists Tom Besson and Travis Cook. Two artists find a commonality in figurative styles while maintaining their own preferred medium (acrylic, oil.) Besson and Cook both touch on topics such as politics, nature, and spirituality within their work which is rich in color and thought provoking stimuli.

FREE admission, refreshments provided.

Tom Besson Artist Statement :

My work is born of some strange marriage of Paganism and Roman Catholicism, substituting the juxtaposition of evil and good with the mundane and the inspirational.

Born into the faith, I was trained to experience and believe in the unseen. I have ever after attempted to paint that hidden world seeking to shuck the mundane in preference to the inspirational.

My work is figurative while widely skirting realism. Reality comes with such limitations. Limited in its three dimensional definition, as I am limited in my patience to render it. Our common recognitions, in their distortions, become the language of the work, the lens through which to glimpse the intangibles of life. The visible used as a mirror to the unseen.

We live in a semi-rational world of words and concrete ideas interpreted by our brains. Emotional and spiritual themes are better spoken from the heart, temporal beating symbol that it is. To tell the tales of one life and in it seek the universal. Do we not all love and dance, cry and mourn, live in the same shared economic and political situations foisted upon us?

All good themes-all played upon the stage of time. The grand theme that encompasses all; birth, the moment, and our own mortality. Is it a line, running from past to future, a ball exploding in a continuous now, or just an outline for a story stored in gray matter waiting for the compost?

I think about these things when painting or of nothing but painting’s tactile pleasures. Happy in the moment, comfortable in my feelings, but still wondering about Its meaning…Or its lack of one.

Acknowledging the influence of Charles Burchfield, Thomas Hart Benton and Hundertwasser I explore themes of time and the ephemeral nature of man. Painting the energy that drives life and how our spirits are connected to nature remains my highest goal. There in lies the magic. Learn more about the artist at www.tombesson.com.

Travis Cook Bio:

I grew up in Georgetown, Texas and was greatly influenced by my time in West Texas (Alpine) as well as the counter culture of the 90's. Inspired by graphic novelists such as Gaiman, Windsor-Smith, and James Jean. I drew on the social commentary of the Harlem Renaissance and the insight of more esoteric artists such as Blake, Gray and Redon for inspiration. My work is largely figurative or involves nature and it is my personal belief that art is necessary for our society and the betterment of the world.