Modern Cowboy by Jon Flaming, Opening May 2, 2019 In Modern Cowboy an important American icon is reimagined through a combined process of digital design and oil paint. A working process that evokes Henri Matisse’s cut-outs and David Hockney’s digital drawings. Flaming has embarked on an ambitious subject: the American cowboy, an icon that combines myth, legend, reality, and childhood play. Through simplification of the forms the Cowboys become iconic characters who wrestle with livestock, land, and elements. They drip sweat from the noonday heat and keep watch at night by light of the crackling campfire. The large-scale canvases incorporate Texas cultural markers like rattlesnakes, grackles and prickly pear cacti to help shape the visual landscape. The works create an active narrative of the Modern Cowboy. “These paintings are stripped away of superfluous elements – the narrative conveyed with the least amount of visual information. They are big, bold, graphic images that in my mind convey a strong sense of who the cowboy and the country really are.” – Jon Flaming BIO Jon Flaming was born on December 2, 1962 in Wichita, Kansas. His family moved to Texas in 1968. By the age of 5 Jon began drawing and has had a desire to create in one form of another since. Visits to his grandparent’s Kansas ranch as a boy made a strong impression. It was here that Jon first experienced small town America and the rural countryside and began to capture its unique character and beauty with his camera and sketchbook. By the time Jon was sixteen and able to drive, he took every opportunity to get out of town and hit the backloads with the hope of discovering as many small towns in Texas as possible. With map and camera in hand, he went in search of abandoned houses, filling stations churches people, courthouses, cafes and critters. His collection of photographs began to grow and today he has thousands of pictures of places all over the state that he uses as reference for his paintings. Primarily self-taught, Jon’s work has been influenced by a number of artists including William Lester, Everett Spruce, Otis Dozier, Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley. He works in oil, acrylic and also found materials. In 1985 Jon graduated from Texas State University with a bachelor’s degree in design and for the last 30 years has been creating award-winning images and branding campaigns for many clients including Neiman Marcus, Pizza Hut, The John Wayne Cancer Foundation, The John Wayne Film Festival, Forbes, JCPenneys, FedEx, Milton Bradley and Pepsi. His work has been recognized and published by numerous organizations including Communication Arts, Print Magazine, Graphis, and the Society of Illustrators. Jon’s fine art is the permanent collection of the Tyler Museum of Art, the Grace Museum in Abilene and also the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art. His work is also in many private and public collections and has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows. Jon lives in Richardson, Texas with his wife Kathy. They have three grown children, (Hanna (married to Preston), Jake (married to Chelsea) and Mary Margaret. Jon’s painting style has evolved over time, but the style of these pieces maintains his folk art style with simple swashes of color. Within this series are a group of paintings in which Jon uses house paint and etches to reveal colors below. The effect is intriguing and simple at the same time, which mirrors the simplicity, yet layered facets of barbeque flavors and spices that are sacred to some of the restaurants he features. Please join us for the show which runs from September 1 through October 3, all at David Dike Fine Art in Dallas. BIO Jon Flaming was born on December 2, 1962 in Wichita, Kansas. His family moved to Texas in 1968. By the age of 5 Jon began drawing and has had a desire to create in one form of another since. Visits to his grandparent’s Kansas ranch as a boy made a strong impression. It was here that Jon first experienced small town America and the rural countryside and began to capture its unique character and beauty with his camera and sketchbook. By the time Jon was sixteen and able to drive, he took every opportunity to get out of town and hit the backloads with the hope of discovering as many small towns in Texas as possible. With map and camera in hand, he went in search of abandoned houses, filling stations churches people, courthouses, cafes and critters. His collection of photographs began to grow and today he has thousands of pictures of places all over the state that he uses as reference for his paintings. Primarily self-taught, Jon’s work has been influenced by a number of artists including William Lester, Everett Spruce, Otis Dozier, Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley. He works in oil, acrylic and also found materials. In 1985 Jon graduated from Texas State University with a bachelor’s degree in design and for the last 30 years has been creating award-winning images and branding campaigns for many clients including Neiman Marcus, Pizza Hut, The John Wayne Cancer Foundation, The John Wayne Film Festival, Forbes, JCPenneys, FedEx, Milton Bradley and Pepsi. His work has been recognized and published by numerous organizations including Communication Arts, Print Magazine, Graphis, and the Society of Illustrators. Jon’s fine art is the permanent collection of the Tyler Museum of Art, the Grace Museum in Abilene and also the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art. His work is also in many private and public collections and has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows. Jon lives in Richardson, Texas with his wife Kathy. They have three grown children, (Hanna (married to Preston), Jake (married to Chelsea) and Mary Margaret. MEAT – Full Price List To view a video teaser by Chris Mano on “MEAT”, click here. PRESS: GuideLive Dallas TX Monthly BBQ.com ART&SEEK Glasstire DALLAS MORNING NEWS BIO: Jon Flaming is a multi-disciplined artist who is a designer, illustrator, and painter. He started Jon Flaming Design in 1993 and has created award-winning design campaigns and illustrations for a number of clients including Neiman Marcus, Milton Bradley, JC Penney, Pizza Hut, FedEx, HP and Pepsi. Jon’s fine art focuses on small town Texas and the Southwest. He is self-taught and works in a number of media, including oil, acrylic and found materials. Everett Spruce, William Lester, Otis Dozier, Stuart Davis, Picasso and Cezanne are a few of the artists who have influenced Jon’s work. The Grace Museum in Abilene and the Tyler Museum of Art both have Jon’s paintings in their permanent collections. His work is also included in many important private collections and has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions. Currently, a documentary about Jon’s work is being filmed by Texas filmmaker Chris Mano. Recently, Jon’s painting of Prince Albert Hunt was featured in the Oxford American Magazine. Jon lives in Richardson with his wife, Kathy. They have three grown children. “Jon Flaming has created a new body of work; paintings depicting the hard, hands-on work of the current oil and gas boom in Texas. This recent oil boom has certainly sparked a renewed excitement in the oil industry. The people, machinery and equipment Jon selects as his subject matter, as well as locations depict the current events and issues the oil field workers and land men are experiencing today. The paintings are executed a modern-folk-art style that is signature to Jon Flaming’s work. Some of figures and imagery in these paintings could be that of the industry 50 plus years ago. However, when the viewer takes a closer look at the details and signs Flaming choses to include, they tell us these paintings are a snapshot of the current boom. Signs could be the frack water wells, the modern pipelines, or the exorbitant cost of a night’s stay at a west Texas motel. Jon’s signature modern-folk-art style is manifested in these paintings. Flaming’s confident use of bold lines, unexpected swashes of color, and generous use of flat geometric and abstracted shape reflect Jon’s stylistic evolution. This new collection of paintings depicting the booming oil industry is not to be missed. The paintings are a refreshing take on an industry that requires hard and dirty work, and what has many people working in a fast and frenzied craze to get a piece of the action.” – Anne Kelly