Current Paintings: 2024 -- 2026

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.

Jack Balas, 2025;
OFF THE RECORD (NAT KING COLE) (#25-2852)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 12 x 12 inches 

Jack Balas, 2025;
OFF THE RECORD (CAT) (#25-2857)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 12 x 12 inches 

Jack Balas, 2025;
OFF THE RECORD (DORIS DAY) (#25-2853)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 12 x 12 inches 

Jack Balas, 2025;
OFF THE RECORD (BARBRA) (#25-2858)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 12 x 12 inches 

Jack Balas, 2025;
OFF THE RECORD (TONY BENNETT) (#25-2856)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 12 x 12 inches 

XXX

Jack Balas, 2026;
OFF THE RECORD (PUPPY) (#26-2860)
India ink & acrylic on paper, 12 x 12 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; 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;
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; 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; 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

 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;
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