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 xxxx

Current Paintings: 2024 -- 2025

SEEKING QUESTIONS TO LIFE'S BIG ANSWERS

When I painted landscape imagery and the constructed environment years ago, I liked to talk about formal concerns: painting as map or diary or arena linking visual and verbal, conceptual and material, fact and fiction, abstraction and representation; not to mention a blend of styles and a viewer building bridges between disparate ideas. While all this remains true, with the paintings today I would say that, given how many images we are all bombarded with every day via the media, I am simply interested in making memorable ones.

The figure has taken center stage since the early 2000's, and there are perhaps four different levels on which one can consider the work: 1) on the beauty level, by which I mean the combination of painting media (watercolor, oil, ink) and styles (abstraction, representation) in a complementary tension that augments the imagery involved; 2) on a political level, in that my goal with the guys who dominate the images and constitute my muse is to populate an art world with them-- an art world where the female image, nude or otherwise, is about as normal as a burger and fries, while the male image continues to be considered, by some, suspect, and is thus in short supply; 3) on the textual level, presenting titles that can be read in varying ways and short stories that are written before or after the images come along, but in any case are springboards for the reader's imagination; and 4) on the transcendent level, an attempt to depict a thoughtful, if not vulnerable, Everyman, reaching beyond the fleeting surface idealization associated with youth and hopefully going far in terms of metaphor, poking around such timeless ideas as: truth, beauty, faith, time, the infinite, what we learn and what we know.

It may seem questionable indeed these days to even concern myself with such unanswerables, but in an era when political and spiritual leaders assert that they in fact have the answers for us all, I think that art has the capacity to imagine otherwise, to offer some transcendent spark to bridge the gap between intent and form, between idea and the evidence of our lives. Muse indeed.

Note: At times my focus is on paper works in series, for instance the MUSE/MUSEUM watercolors and TATTOO DETOUR drawings from Honolulu. Therefore, select images from these series have been incorporated onto this page along with the "usual" canvases. More images from these series can be found on their dedicated pages.  

Note 2: As of December, 2022, I am including a few PHOTOGRAPHS in the mix, to contextualize the paintings within my "usual" realm of visual interests.

 

 

 

   

2025 

 

Jack Balas, 2025;
PICTURE THIS (#2716) (A TRUE STORY)
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

zzzClick on image for text

 

  

Jack Balas, 2025;
MOONLIGHT (#2694)
India ink on paper, 36x24 inches

 

 

Jack Balas, 2025;
A BOOK BY THE SAME TITLE (#2714)
India ink on paper, 24x18 inches

zzz

 

Jack Balas, 2025;
(NOT TITLED) (BUFFALO) (#2712)
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

 


 

Jack Balas, 2025;
THIN ICE (#2708, 2695)
India ink on paper, 36x24 inches

zzz

Sunrise, New Year's Day 2025

 

  

Jack Balas, 2025;
SECRET (#2705)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

 

 

Jack Balas, 2025;
PERFECT (#2704)
India ink on paper, 36x24 inches

 

Jack Balas, 2025;
PROOF (#2713)
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

 

 

2024

Wrestlers
Writers
Wrenegades

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024;
PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF (#2686)
India ink on paper, 24x18 inches

 

 

  

Jack Balas, 2024;
HALLELUJAH (#1702)
India ink on paper, 24x18 inches

  

Jack Balas, 2024;
MOON CASE (#2700)
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

  

Jack Balas, 2024
THE TRAIN SET (BUT THIS IS NOT MY STORY) (#2703)
India ink on joined paper, 30" X 24"

Click on image for text

zzz

 

Jack Balas, 2024;
Untitled Landscape (#2697)
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

Colorado

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024;
SEE AMERICA THIRST (#2691)
(For H.C. Westermann)
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

 

Tucson

  

Jack Balas, 2024; RON WAS DAD'S MECHANIC (#2688)
India ink on paper, 24x18 inches

Click image for text

  

Jack Balas, 2024;
WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU SEE (#2584)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Jack Balas, 2024; DITTO (#2690);
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

Click on image for text


 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; McKINLEY (#2612)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches
Text:
McKinley -- The mountain and the park, the backcountry
with my food stashed 400 feet from my tent (the bears!),
years before they were renamed DENALI.
I met another McKinley last year at the gym who came for
photos. He's NOT changing his name.

   

Jack Balas, 2024; GROUND HOG DAY (AUGUST) (#2628)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

 



Jack Balas, 2024;
A SUPERB IMPRESSION, IN PRISTINE CONDITION
(TOO LOOSE) (# 2611)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 30x22 inches

Hopscotch, Colorado

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; THE ROAR OF THE CROWD (#2583-B)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Jack Balas, 2024; Untitled (#2698);
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

 

Jack Balas, 2024; BINGO (#2683)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

Text:
It was pushing 90 by noon, and I was in Lincoln to check out the art museum on campus, when I walked past a grounds crew and this guy wrestling a hose by some flowers. We caught each other's eye and, hot day that it was, he put the end of the hose to the top of his head and, big smile, let the water flow down over him. "Fountain!" I laughed as he handed me the hose. "No," he protested, "not Duchamp, but maybe Grant Wood's 'SULTRY NIGHT,' or the LAOCOON, or Cy Twombly or even Brice Marden." "Bingo!" I exclaimed, "We've got bingo!" Us art majors, we stick together.

 

Jack Balas, 2024; THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING (#2626)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches


 

Jack Balas, 2024; AS WE COMPARE NOTES AND
GOSSIP UNDER THE TREES (#2633)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches



Jack Balas, 2024;
4TH & GOAL, THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE
(TODAY IS FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2024)
(#2681) India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

 

Jack Balas, 2024; THE CROWD IS ON ITS FEET (#2614)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Jack Balas, 2024; Untitled (#2699);
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

 

Jack Balas, 2024; THE FALL OF AUTUMN LEAVES (#2631)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

  

Jack Balas, 2024; SUBSCRIBE (#2616)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

Jack Balas, 2024; POINT (#2613)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; JUST SAYIN' (#2615)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

From the MUSE/ MUSEUM series
Text by artist Thomas Hirschhorn
 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; WISH ME LUCK (#2590)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

  

Jack Balas, 2024; THE DEFIANCE REMAINS (#2605)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

 

Somewhere...

Jack Balas, 2024; EATING CHERRIES (#2623)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches
 

Text:
It's nearly a hundr'd out and I'm in the yard under a tree
eating cherries and yogurt out of a bowl.
I use my spoon to launch the pits against the garage
where they ricochet into the grass.
The rabbits are all ears.

 

Jack Balas, 2024; SOME OLD SONG (#2632)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

 

Jack Balas, 2024; IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES,
IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES (#2588)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

Jack Balas, 2024; CARGO (#2622)
India inK on paper, 18x24 inches

Gym

 

Jack Balas, 2024; THE BEST RIDES ARE AT NIGHT (#2630)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

Jack Balas, 2024;
ANOTHER PAGE FROM JAMES JONES (#2627)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

  

Jack Balas, 2024; RED TRUCK, BLUE BOY (#2624)
India ink on paper, 18x24 inches

 

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; PAUSE (MOOSE) (#2602
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches


 

Jack Balas, 2024;
I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD SHOOT A FISH (#2625)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

Text:
I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD SHOOT A FISH, BUT
THERE WE WERE UP AT TWIN LAKES, CAMPING,
WALKING ALONG A STREAM WHEN TOM SPOTTED
A FISH, PULLED A GUN OUT OF SOMEWHERE
AND SHOT IT. KABLAM! IT LEAPT WAY OUT OF THE
WATER AND LANDED, HEADLESS, ON THE BANK.
I WAS SO SURPRISED. THE FISH WAS TOO.

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; THE ROADS ARE OPEN (#2585)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

 


 

  

Jack Balas, 2024; DUDE RANCH (#2617)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text: THE WEEK I TURNED TEN WE WENT UP TO A
RANCH IN THE COLORADO MOUNTAINS. NOTHING
HAS EVER BEEN THE SAME SINCE.

   

Jack Balas, 2024; WE'VE COME TO READ YOUR BOOKS
(#2566); India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches
   

Colorado

 

Jack Balas, 2024; HIDE (#2420, 2606)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 30x22 inches

 

 

 

 


Jack Balas, 2024; OUR PARKING LOTS (#2555)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text:
AS IF OUR PARKING LOTS OUTSIDE WERE NOT EMPTY,
SCORED AND SCARRED, SO MANY HIEROGLYPHICS AND CIPHERS WAITING FOR US TO ANSWER.


 

Jack Balas, 2024; AS COLERIDGE WROTE,
"AND IN TODAY ALREADY WALKS TOMORROW" (#2600)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

Times Square, NYC



  


 

Jack Balas, 2024; AN OWL CALLING WHO? WHO? (#2557)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text:
ALL MORNING AN OWL HAS BEEN SITTING IN THE TREE OUT FRONT CALLING "WHO? WHO?"

xxx

 

New Mexico

Jack Balas, 2024; GARRET; (# 2610)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 30x22 inches

Tucson

 

Jack Balas, 2024; CALL ME ISHMAEL (#2587)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Tucson

 

Jack Balas, 2024; BRICKYARD (#2003, 2608)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 22x30 inches

 

 


 

Jack Balas, 2024; COUNTY FAIR (#2591)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

TEXT:

THE MIDWAY
COUNTY FAIR NIGHT
TWIRLING NEON
GIRL GANGS
TANK TOPS
TILT-A-WHIRL
FERRIS WHEEL
COTTON CANDY
SWEATY BACKS OF BOYS

Today is Friday, May 17, 2024, Tucson

 

Jack Balas, 2024; Grandeur (#2596)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

 

Jack Balas, no date, FOUND HOUND...
acrylic on paper, 14x11 inches

 

  

Jack Balas, 2024; PERFECT FELIX (#2597)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Fom the Muse/ Museum Series
For Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Jack Balas, 2024; THE HERO OF MY OWN LIFE (#2589)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

 Text:
WHETHER I SHALL TURN OUT TO BE THE HERO OF MY OWN LIFE, OR WHETHER THAT STATION WILL BE HELD BY ANYBODY ELSE, THESE PAGES MUST SHOW

(Charles Dickens).

 





DD

 

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; BOTH (#2403, 2607)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 22x30 inches

 


 

Jack Balas, 2024; LET ME TELL YOU A STORY (#2531)
India ink & watercolor on paper, 30x22 inches

Click on image for text

 

Jack Balas, 2024; THE WILLOW BENDS, AND SO DO I (#2563)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 


 


 

Jack Balas, 2024; MY COMPASS TRUE (#2575)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text:
BUT IT'S THAT SUNSET, THOSE LIGHTS ON THE HORIZON, THIS DUSK... THE TANK IS FULL, MY COMPASS TRUE. GO, I SAY, GO.
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 wqwww

 

 

 


 Jack Balas, 2024;
THERE'S ONLY ONE WINNER IN THIS BALLGAME (#2563)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text:: 
THERE'S ONLY ONE WINNER IN THIS BALLGAME, PAL, AND THAT'S THE ARTIST. NOT THE GALLERIES, NOT THE CRITICS, NOT THE COLLECTORS, NOT THE CURATORS OR THE MUSEUMS OR THE AUCTION HOUSES. IT'S THE ARTIST WHO WINS. AND REMEMBER THAT WHEN THE WORLD FORGETS ABOUT YOU.

 

 

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; I AM NEVER ALONE (#2578)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text::
THOSE RADIO TOWERS BLINKING RED INTO THE NIGHT, THOSE TRAIN HORNS DOWNTOWN, A CAT CROSSING IN THE LIGHT OF A STREET LAMP, A PLANE CROSSING THE SKY... I AM NEVER ALONE.
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Henry Taylor Exhibition
Whitney Museum, NYC

 

Jack Balas, 2024; YOU WEAR IT WELL (#2573)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

Jack Balas, 2024; PORTICO (#2577)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

  

Jack Balas, 2024; THIS IS NOT ABOUT BASEBALL (#2581)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

 Jack Balas, 2024;
HAVE YOU EVER HOPPED A FREIGHT? (#2567)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text:
HAVE YOU EVER HOPPED A FREIGHT? RAN FOR THAT MOAN OF THE ENGINES? -- WELL, I'VE WALKED DOWN A LOT OF TRACKS, PICKED FLATTENED PENNIES OFF THE RAIL, FELT THE HEAT, THE WEIGHT, THE THRUST OF APPROACH -- SO LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT DOME CARS.

 

 


vvvvvv 

 

 

 

zz
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New York City

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; HOLY MOTHER OF GOD (#2564)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches


 

 

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024;
THE RAIN AT THE END OF THE RUNWAY (#2576)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text:
MY CITY ON THE HILL. THE RAIN AT THE END
OF THE RUNWAY.


 

Jack Balas, 2024; I'M BLACK HISTORY? SINCE WHEN? (#2550)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches



 

Jack Balas, 2024; RED SHIRT (IN PROGRESS) (#2554)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches



 

Jack Balas, 2024;
BOOKS! MY SHELVES ARE OVERFLOWING WITH BOOKS!
(#2559); India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches


 

Jack Balas, 2024; TAKE ME THERE (#2580)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 18x24 inches

Text::
SO WE DROVE TOWARDS A TOWN WHOSE FIRST HOUSE SEEMED SO REMOTE AND PRECARIOUS ON THE EDGE OF THIS BLANK VASTNESS -- BUT A LIGHT WAS ON INSIDE, AND WE KNEW IT HAD BEEN LEFT ON FOR US.

-- TAKE ME THERE

 

Jack Balas, 2024; TURN THE PAGE, BUDDY (#2570)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; VAN GOGH'S LETTERS (#2548)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text:
ALL THAT FALL HE READ ONLY THE LETTERS OF VINCENT VAN GOGH. (ALL THREE VOLUMES) TWICE.

xxxxx

 

Jack Balas, 2024; OCTOBER (I MAY, I MAY) (#2551)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 20x16 inches

 


 

Tucson

 

New Mexico

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; AND TO WRITE A BOOK ABOUT IT (#2555)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches


  

Jack Balas, 2024; THIRD METAPHOR FOR EXCELLENCE (#2582)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

 


 

Jack Balas, 2024; WITH A PREFACE BY ROBERT FROST (#2558)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

WWWWW

 

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; TYPOS (LOOK BOTH WAYS) (#2562)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches


I-10, Tucson

 

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; MY THESIS COULD BE WRITTEN (#2556)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches


Text:
LINCOLN, DAWN, DOWNTOWN RED BRICK STREETS, WAREHOUSES, NOT FAR FROM THE CAPITOL, NOT FAR FROM THE CAMPUS, HUMID STICKY JULY NO SHIRT WALKING, MY THESIS COULD BE WRITTEN.

 

 

 

Jack Balas, 2024; THOSE SHADOWS OF A TREE (#2553)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 16x20 inches

Text:
ARE WE NOT, YOU AND I, LIKE THOSE SHADOWS OF A
TREE BLOWING ACROSS THE WALL IN A GENTLE WIND?

   

 

Jack Balas, 2024; TO THIS DAY (#2537);
India ink on paper, 30x22 inches

Click on image for text

 

Jack Balas, 2024; WORDS, SWORD (#2565)
India ink on paper, 24x18 inches

 


 

Jack Balas, 2024; MOZART? CAN THAT BE MOZART? (#2555)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Text:
MOZART? CAN THAT BE MOZART? THE FIRST TIME I EVER IN MY LIFE I EVER STOPPED TO ASK A QUESTION LIKE THAT . IS IT? AND IT IS. (DAMN)

XXXXXX

Jack Balas, 2024; MY UNCOLLECTED ESSAYS (#2555)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 24x18 inches

Jack Balas, 2024; MY TRUE CROSS (#2569)
India ink on paper, 24x18 inches

Tucso

  

Jack Balas, 2024; BULL (#2546)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 22x30 inches

Mountainair, NM

  

Jack Balas, 2024; OUR SUBTLE DEBUT (#2541)
India ink on paper, 24x18 inches
 

Trinidad, Colorado

 

Jack Balas, 2024; RUN / URN (MINOTAUR) (#2542)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 30x22 inches

 

  

Jack Balas, 2024; PRE-DAWN, NEW YEAR'S DAY (#2530)
India inK on paper, 22x30 inches

Click on image for text

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

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