The latest exhibition in this long-standing showcase for outstanding regional contemporary art focuses on the accomplished works of the respected Huntsville artist, Jim Jobe. Jobe’s paintings and drawings incorporate both pure abstraction and an eccentric combination of abstract and representational elements. Much of his imagery suggests both direct and peripheral perception. An avid hiker, the artist describes this phenomenon in his work: “When you’re hiking, you can stop and frame a bucolic setting, but that’s not how you experience it. In reality, imagery comes in constantly from all sorts of directions. It’s how I see things. Everywhere, I see these puzzle-pieces of interwoven connections.”

Born in Buffalo, New York, Jobe spent his youth in a military family traveling throughout the United States and abroad, finally moving from Athens, Greece and settling in the Southeast. He earned a B.S. in art education from Freed-Hardiman College in Henderson, TN, as well as B.F.A. and M.F.A. in fine art from the University of Alabama, and has worked as an artist, art educator, and strong advocate for arts education.

Primarily recognized as a painter, Jobe works in several disciplines and mediums. For a few years, in an effort to refocus his work, the artist stopped painting altogether and tried to re-teach himself how to draw. Admiration for the craftsmanship of woodworkers and ceramicists led him to approach drawing more as a way of achieving mastery with a pencil as a tool than as a way to produce imagery. This led him more deeply into abstraction, studying the interplay between line and shape and color.

Artist Gallery Walk & Reception
2 p.m., Sunday, April 8
Grisham Gallery

Reception following in the Richard and Roper Room – Hosted by the Huntsville Museum of Art Guild.