"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom."
– Albert Einstein
Digital Collaboration with CNeilanami, 2015
J. Kramer received his M.F.A. student at San Diego State University in the Furniture Design program. His B.F.A. was completed at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, Indiana with a double major in Furniture Design and Ceramics. During both duration's of undergraduate and graduate school he was awarded consecutive scholarships, purchase awards, and commissions from east to west coast. In junction with his traditional training at a young age within furniture and its processes his work has evolved into hybridism of philosophy and art. He was the Director of Woodworking at Yestermorrow Design & Build School in Waitsfield, Vermont for 8 years. Currently he is teaching within the arts at the University of Southern Indiana.
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| Abstract |
"Existing in this age of bio-social integration among science, technology, and us as human beings, I create works of art that embody the aesthetics behind our deepest questions within these fields. By applying a cosmic understanding of different mediums and materials, and as a 21st century alchemist in a laboratory of conceptualization and manifestations of art, I am inspired by much of our history’s shared connection to cycles of epoch. The further back we plunge, art is all we have to derive an aesthetic consciousness of a specific time. I hybridize the designs and concepts of the past to not only create resonance within the individual through form, but to potentially cast echoes of the self throughout the past, present, and future."
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"We have entered an era in which science and technology are accessible to everyone. The advancement of these fields allows us to test the legitimacy of our ideas through new, innovative ways of thinking within scientific methodologies. For example, within the field of quantum physics, we have learned to approach reality much differently by seeing everything as probabilities, not certainties. This mathematically illustrates that anything can be possible. In order for us, as a social edifice, to identify and adopt new ways of thinking, we must become less biased and more open. The more we begin to apply these ways of thinking back into our current technologies and jobs, new innovations begin to surface that would have never been considered to be relevant to the whole.
Why is this necessary? The moment we are self-aware enough to realize a shift in our perception, our intentions become powerful tools to enhance our potential as human beings. Allowing us to make conscious decisions for ourselves, break free from our attachments to belief systems that are merely hazy lenses clouding our fundamental intuition. The focus of this body of work is to inspire us all to think independently of old constructs – to avoid passive ways of seeing, hearing, and feeling – and experience the world actively. As Leonardo da Vinci once said "“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.”
The Studio in Granville, Vermont
Each piece is designed to bring a new awareness within an intuitive way of knowing, and hopefully inspire a renewal of free will within the individual, rekindling the nostalgia we once vividly experienced during childhood. As we grow older our sense of imagination is obscured with the “reality” of our current social patterns. Remember when you were a child and became so en-grained within something that you totally lost sense of your environment and time itself? Being so alert within this current moment is what some may consider a pure act of intention which is the only experience that is real. All children carry this quality and can be seen simply in behaviors such as dancing on the bus not having a care in the world about the twenty others riding along. If we as “adults” could only harness and re-examine these emotions we can begin to create real experiences for ourselves that are meaningful to the individual. The viewers experience within interacting with the work is meant to be a referential vehicle for this concept, provoking us to think about our physical and/or emotional relationship with these pieces and how our current perceptions and behaviors may be questioned by functioning within this environment."
- J. Kramer 2012