Vernon Salyers, Current Faculty

ARTIST STATEMENT

For the past 12 years, Vernon Salyers’ art has been based in the idea of an “abstract” autobiographical—a non-linear journal of sorts.

This body of work manifested 12 years ago, out necessity for various reasons, due to a nearly fatal accident. He recovered from a fully paralyzed state to a partial one and thus, confronted new and very different realities as an artist and teacher. He turned his focus away from social-political observations and started this new journey of the “self” series.

This current series, “Note to Self; …” pulls from pages of a notepad that he meticulously kept and coded for medical and personal reasons for the past 12 years. It also pulls from journals and scrap paper he scribbled on, doodling in the dark on anything available, mostly strained beyond recognition, including signatures and scrawls that came from taping a pen to his left hand, as his right hand/arm was useless.

“Note to Self;” #...Series relies on embellishing subtle textures that conjure (a summoning effect) to reveal obscure images. These amorphous forms buried in the textures have surfaced in the process for further inquiry. He abandons some formal routines and compositional ideas., creating past scenarios, such as taping objects to his left hand again and scribbling in the dark on the actual work. Letting happen chance and process aid and allude to ambivalence, chaos and confusion, and yet still trying to find some unorthodox order in the obscure vernacular. The work almost always starts with a collage process from a notepad. A base in which everything manifests. When the layers collide, images and characters appear. Finding beauty in the grieving numbers and textures. Teasing the nebulous forms with subtle manipulation, enticing intrigue, oddity and evoking the psychological.