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Featured Artist:
John Cross
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John was born and grew up in St. Charles. He received his BFA from S.I.U.E in 1996 and his MFA from Fontbonne University in 2001, both with an emphasis in painting. John has taught drawing, painting, and design at several of the region’s colleges and universities. Currently, he is the Art Studio Technician at St. Charles Community College which entails everything from fixing broken woodworking equipment and running iron pours to troubleshooting computers in the Mac lab and building easels. This “Jack of all trades” job seems to suit his highly eclectic artistic style, and as such he has begun to use sculpture, printmaking, photography, and digital imaging as modes of expression.
In the images John creates, he likes to layer disparate elements with seemingly unrelated subjects in hopes of inspiring contemplation within the viewer. The exact meaning of each piece is individual and open to interpretation; however, for John, each one is typically rooted in a joke, a quip, or just some crazy connection he have made between the image and its underlying meaning. "I think a large aspect of what I do is to distill and edit contemporary life into visual sound bites and catch phrases that reflect our culture and time, all with a wink and a grin." John exhibits his artwork regionally and nationally. The next opportunity to view the artwork of John Cross will be at the Foundry Art Centre March 28-May 9 as part of the Group Four Award for painting.
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