Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Bolton.
Hi Jonathan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m an artist born in Greenville, SC. I trained locally, Greenville Tech, Winthrop University for Undergraduate, and received my MFA from Clemson University, finishing in 2023.
I was a meandering student with a lot of drawing skill but absolutely no ambition. It was a GT that I received some very tough love and was told to either start taking my work seriously or do something else. I believe they said something to the effect of “you make very good work, so it’s very annoying you don’t make great work.” My time in undergrad and gradschool really helped me to understand where my artistic compulsions resided–what subjects and aesthetics drive me do make marks on paper.
Since then, drawing has become not only an artistic practice, but a philosophical foundation for me. It’s the thing that keeps me active in the world and helps me engage with experiences more deeply; so I treat my drawing practice with a lot of respect and give my works the time they deserve. It’s the main thing that keeps me disciplined, regimented, and organized to keep my meandering attitudes at bay.
After graduate school, I was delighted to continue the work I was making–finding the next iteration and continuing to build a volume of drawings. I moved into Oye Studios a year later, and have been there making my work ever since. Along the way I developed a love for teaching. So I adjunct occasionally, teach lots of summer workshops, and host my own classes out of the studio. Drawing with confidence and competence is extremely important to me; so I feel obligated to share every bit of information / technique as I can with my students.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have no right to complain. Besides some financial problems, I was lucky to have supportive friends/family, but also instructors who were not afraid to challenge me. The second someone saw me drawing something too familiar or too comfortable for my skill set, they pushed me further. They taught me that some of the best art making is when you’re on the backfoot.
I had a lot of stigma and misinformed junk information to overcome. “Artists aren’t successful until they die.”
“You should be an architect; they get to draw.” I don’t blame anyone for having this information. It took a long time for me to rid myself of mental blocks like that. During art history classes, plus studying contemporary artist careers and alternative art markets; I realised that the misinformation just comes from a place of concern, and ultimately a lack of knowledge. I learned very early on, the only people who find no success in art are the intensely stubborn or those who are quick to give up.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I make drawings with pencil and paper. I relly love making a simple tool make large impacts, especially one that is so accessible to people with little/no artistic training.
What really drives my work is a love for ambiguity. I don’t believe in single, clean explanations. I don’t like it when we assume we know everything about a situation when we have almost no information. I like to emphasize how deceptive our sense of sight can be — how misguided our skill of interpretation can be. So I make images that give small amounts of context, but drastically affect the space to keep an air of ambiguity. I don’t want the viewer to ever feel like they’ve figured out the drawing. Art is not a math problem. The pieces that are (in my opinion) are very boring.
The multitude of arms comes from a novel by Jean-Paul Sartre. An existentially distracted main character describes some people in a cafe as a ‘warm packet…with several pairs of arms waving around.” As someone who lived a lot of their 20s in a state of self-centered distraction, I felt like this was a good example of how being overly concerned with your own existential dread or nihilsim makes the world invisible to you. So I take scenes of conversation and celebration, of games and play, then remove facial expressions or parts of the setting, to make viewers yearn to participate.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Greenville? I think it’s an amazing spot to connect with people and create genuine community with neighbors with good-old southern hospitality, yet allowing new ideas (particularly in the arts) and new businesses find roots. I love that it feels like a good city to die in.
I don’t love how overdeveloped areas have become. Too many unaffordable apartments to the people that have lived here a long time; it’s the same nonsense going on everywhere else. Unchecked developers developing unchecked. Greenville used to feel a little different; but we’re slowly becoming like every other place.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jonboltonfa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonbolton.art/
