Jim Thompson

I am fascinated by the indelibility of impressions formed during childhood and adolescence. It is my intention to excavate these most durable memories and document them through painting and sculpture, and to examine their recontextualized form. My practice is therefore experimental in nature. The first series of images I have produced are the baseball card paintings, all taken from the year 1977, all from the card publisher Topps. The paintings intend to be faithful to the cards in both size and image, any changes to the look of the original cards are the result of happenstance or error. The selection of  1977 as the source year for the card paintings resulted from personal memory (1977 was the year I actually collected baseball cards) and excellence in graphic design, which contributed in no small way to the durability of the memories I suspect. The card paintings intend to be evocative, and I suppose that creating a state of thoughtful reverie is their clearest intention.