Artist Statement

artwork by jimmy danko

Philosophically my art at its core is an anthem to the unfettered creative expression we hold as children – when testing limits through adventure, laughter, and mayhem are integral to our developing understanding of the world around us. In practice, my art appears to be about bending reality and the distortion of time through scale, color, and context. 

As kids, we are unhurried and live in the moment. An abundance of daydreaming and play combined with our innocence makes us spontaneous, and curious, helping us to meet life with a sense of awe and no thought of consequences. In my own childhood, my days were filled with monster battles, ghost riding bikes into oblivion, and reenacting last-second game-winning shots – on repeat. Some of my most inspired moments were far removed from parental oversight, when my own mayhem reigned supreme. For most of us, such slivers of time, along with a tapestry of life experiences are shelved away until random colors, shapes, or smells spark the memory of a long forgotten adventure or discovery.

Taking visual cues from the infusion of communications design omnipresent in everyday American life I hope to ignite that spark. Comprised of ephemera from breakfast cereal, to sports, to luxury fashion, and everything in between, objects like a LEGO brick or an Air Jordan sneaker, become peripheral elements of how we chart and define the past and present. My paintings juxtapose classic oil realism against a backdrop of vibrant graphic and typographic elements with layered panels that expand beyond the traditional rectangular 2D plane. My choices of form and structure are influenced by my time working in graphic design and advertising. The tension of the harmony and dissonance in these elements nods towards a playful nostalgia but also hints at more subversive subject matter, all while questioning our personal and subjective relationship with time. 

I present these themes as our shared history in joy and wonder. Working to play back these collected moments as monuments gleaned from our collective unconscious. I hope to provide a reminder of how our experiences, combined with the visual culture that permeates our everyday lives, ultimately shapes who we are and helps us to define our place in time. If this work allows, even if just for a brief moment, a space for time to be elastic, we’ll have a place to share where the gravity of life can escape us again.