11/25/03Jimmy Descant
Severe Re-Constructivist, Rocketships a Specialty
When I started creating assemblage art, I saw in the parts I was finding at thrift stores and flea markets my own vision of what craftsmen before me knew; that details, many unseen, were the true key to vision and expression. Having no art history or technique training, I have found myself in the realm of artists past and have compounded on those past ideas of found object assemblage and have made it my own. The rocketships were first due to an old vacuum cleaner found at a New Orleans flea market and it’s futuristic art deco lines. Now after 15 years the form takes a larger shape - a tactile mural, a bowling ball planet, a vision of potential; and what were sequentially numbered now have creative titles, purpose, and positivity. There is no welding in my work. I find parts that have never seen each other that mesh naturally and form my style in a clean professional fit. My rocketships neither contain or depict any form of guns, bullets, or bombs; they are for the peaceful exploration of time, space, ideas, and cultures. But some political/social assemblages may include tools of violence to make a point. Recycling is a major key, and the finding of the raw materials is a large share of the end result, of which I am a professional in acquiring the vintage and beautiful in out of the way places.
After losing all at my former home and shop in New Orleans, I have found that the world is still full of inspiration and the means to get to the realization of those visions. In other words, there will always be more stuff out there in the world. Traveling everywhere in America, I know I will never run out of raw materials from the Golden Age of manufacturing. Though rockets are my specialty, I am not just the Rocketman, but a severe Reconstructivist seeking the cool and inspiration.
I now live and create in Salida, CO. but always a New Orleanian.
11/25/03
