The ACADIA PAINTINGS are based on photographic studies I have made of monumental rock formations on the coast of Acadia National Park/Cranberry Islands, Maine. Prolonged study of these phenomena impressed me with their striking visual similarity to the eroded relief paintings and sculptures in the Pharaonic temples and tombs with which I had been concerned in an earlier series, which began during an extended trip to Egypt in 1981-82. I felt a similar psychological presence, a certain shared mystery.

My primary concern is to bring to the canvas this sense of emotional intensity which springs from direct observation of the motif: to rediscover through the painting process at a given time and place that which has occurred in another time and place. Ideally, past and present merge and the future becomes possible.
This involves not only a degree of fidelity to the remembered image by initially working directly from projected slides, but also a continual transformation of that image through deliberate spatial distortion and, especially, through drastic departure from the original color. Simultaneously, the original illusionistic image is diffused toward the edges of the format, thus causing these apparently solid, three-dimensional shapes to float somewhere behind, on, or in front of the color field at the periphery of the painting itself. The superimposed bands, stripes or squares of color, which sometimes echo or repeat geometric elements occurring naturally within the biomorphic image, serve as structural memory brackets, linking past to present on the surface of the canvas.

Biography

Born Jefferson City, Missouri. Lived in France and Germany, 1959-1961. Since 1961 has lived and worked in New York City.

Currently represented by Viridian Artists Inc. 530 West 25th Street NY NY 10001

EDUCATION: Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO. BFA 1957, MFA 1958

TEACHING: Professor of Art, Kingsborough Community College, C.U.N.Y., 1966-1992. Retired, 1992

ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS:

Viridian Gallery, New York, NY, October, 2006
Salena and Resnick Galleries, Long Island University, Brooklyn Center 1984
American Cultural Center, Cairo, Egypt 1982
Studio 365, New York, NY. Reprise of Cairo Exhibition 1982
Galeria Arrabal, Callosa de Ensarria (Alicante),, Spain 1972

GROUP EXHIBITIONS: (partial listing),

"Celebration: Viridian Artists 40th Anniversary"2007
"New Art for New Collectors´ Viridian Gallery 2007
"The Areality Show", Viridian Gallery 2006
“Big City Concerns”, Fountain Street Gallery, Cape Girardeau, MO, 2006
“City Lights”, Viridian Gallery, New York, NY, 2005
“Inklings: Drawing in the 21st Century”, Viridian Gallery, New York, NY, 2005
“Vibrations”, Viridian Gallery, New York, NY, 2005
“You/Us”, Viridian Gallery, New York, NY, 2004
“Millennium Exhibition”, Rosenberg Gallery, NYU, New York, NY 2000
University Council for Art Education, Fordham University, New York, NY 1998
Benefit Exhibition, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA 1997
Islesford Artists Gallery, Islesford, ME 1995
FACT Contemporary Exhibition Space, Laguna Beach, CA 1995
“Influenced by Architecture: 10 Artists”, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA. 1994
“Egyptomania", Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville, NY 1992
“Architecture as Abstraction”, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, NY 1990
“Myth and Mystery”, Fordham University, Lincoln Center, New York, NY 1986
“The Gathering of the Avant-Garde: the Lower East Side, 1948-1970”, Henry Street Settlement, New York, NY. 1985
“Art of Northeast U.S.A., 36th New England Exhibition: Silvermine Guild, New Canaan, CT. 1985. Also 25th New England Exhibition, 1974
Contemporary Arts Gallery, New York University, New York, NY 1984
Trompe L’Oeil Gallery, New York, NY 1983
Image South Gallery, Atlanta, GA, Annually, 1977-1983
Galeria Arrabal, Callosa de Ensarria, Spain. Annually since 1973
Gallery 86,LTD, New York, NY 1972,1973
Museum of Modern Art, Art Lending Service, New York, NY 1969,1970
“Manhattan Counterpoints”, Lever House, New York, NY 1967
Dorsky Gallery, New York, NY 1966
Van Bovenkamp Gallery, New York, NY 1965
“Annual Exhibition of Prints & Drawings”, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1965
Galerie Jacques Casanova, Paris, France 1961, 1962
Galerie des Grands Augustins, Paris, France 1961

CORPORATE COLLECTIONS:

AT&T, New York, NY
Bank of the South, Atlanta, GA
Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., New York, NY
Otis Elevator Corporation, New York, NY
United Technologies, Hartford, CT

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS:

In Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and USA

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

JACK BOLEN: THE ACADIA PAINTINGS. Catalog essay by Ruth Bass. Published by FACT, Laguna Beach, CA, 1995 INFLUENCED BY ARCHITECTURE: TEN ARTISTS, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA. Curator: David Judelson. Catalog essay by George Melrod, 1994 EGYPTOMANIA. Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, Brookville, NY. Curator: Dr. Bob Brier. Catalog essay, 1992 ARCHITECTURE AS ABSTRACTION. Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, NY. Curator: Margot Farrington. Catalog essay, 1990 DESIGN DIMENSIONS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE VISUAL SURFACE. Cynthia Maris Dantzic, Prentice Hall, New York, NY, 1989 THE NEW YORK ART REVIEW. Edited by Les Krantz. American References, Chicago, IL, 1988

Numerous newspaper reviews in U.S. and abroad.