Mother/daughter 44. 2016 Tom makes a choice 2020.
160x106 cm Marker pen on polythene Dana. 160x140cm marker pen on polythene. 2016 100x80cm
Jim Dunkley Work
During the decline of my sister, artist Sue Dunkley, into Alzheimer's disease which causes both long and short-term memory loss, I began to examine our shared past and my own earliest memories of our childhood together. I remember very little of the events recorded in the few black and white photographs that remain from that vanished time. Yet they seem significant; a record of those childhood years in Leicester after the war as part of a working class family. The photographs seem to offer little information except that as a family we were together at a particular time long ago. Yet I am aware that during those early years I absorbed emotional attitudes and personal and political beliefs that remain part of who I am today.
In recent drawings and paintings I retrieve the past and associate it with the present, seeking to discover the emotional reality behind the personal myths with which we embroider our lives.
Over 50 years as an artist I have made work in a wide range of media, both 2d, 3d and in Live Art.
Drawing and Painting have always been the main focus of my practice.
In recent years I also worked as an actor which has encouraged my use of an implied narrative in my work.
During the Covid crisis I have painted a series of portraits of individuals, seeing them like actors playing a variety of roles rather than single likenesses. Under threat as we all are, our individuality stands out but it is multi-faceted. The portraits explore the many people the lie behind the face of a single individual.
I have taught Fine Art at various colleges and Unis including Chelsea,Canterbury and Kingston and taught drawing at the British Museum.
I have exhibited my work on many occasions in Britain and abroad and I have always continued my practice as an artist. My essential philosophy for working as an artist is 'Do it'.
Jim Dunkley Jan 2020
Email- [email protected]
phone 07908082735
Instagram jimdunkley44
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