Jon Lundell
Cinematic Images
December 2- 30, 2015
Newton Free Library
Opening reception Saturday December 5, 2-4 pm

About Cinematic Images

For a number of years Jon Lundell has been exploring compositions dictated by the aspect ratio used in traditional 35 mm cinema. The particular aesthetic of classic film proportions have both inspired and compelled him to think about these drawings and paintings as film stills, thus casting his images to the world of the ‘big screen’.

There is a profound generosity in Jon Lundell’s gaze. Oblique moments are described by ordinary gestures; the movement of a cloud or a woman’s hand, the turn of an ankle, become suspended in time like lost film stills. Jon’s Movies describe the stillness of waiting, of longing. His images present off -screen moments, quiet glimpses of the action that happens when the cameraman goes on break.

Lundell's muse is no Hollywood starlet, nor abstract deity. His models are found on the D train, or sitting behind a corporate hotel desk. His muse inhabits the bodies of ordinary women; his drawings celebrate their capacity for extraordinary beauty in small transcendent moments.

This quiet adoration extends to the landscape where we are asked to consider the intricately rendered leaf panel titled Cynthia. Note: these are not the vibrant red and sexy yellow generally associated with ‘autumn beauty’. These leaves are dry and congested- each one painted so reverently that they rustle and glow, as newly fallen maple leaves could not. Presented with this unlikely jewel box of dead dried leaves we may find ourselves wondering who is Cynthia? Is this a memorial? A tribute? Is this Movie about an end? Or a beginning?

Marguerite White