Further In
“If your son is an artist, what’s he doing in a machine shop?”
This was the question folk singer Greg Brown posed to my dad, signing a CD for me, after my dad explained why I couldn’t be at the concert.
It’s a good question, so much so that my dad made sure to pass it on.
I did not storm the gates or charge down the path to be an artist. I was slow, filled with just enough courage to overcome my fears, just enough hope to quell my doubts, just enough grace to grow my gifts.
In this show, you see the paintings born of moving further into a deepening gratitude for all those artists who’ve come before and mentored those who taught me. I am not talking about something as shallow as pedigree, but rather teaching more this year has deepened my gratitude for the sacrifices and energy that my mentors put into my training, their mentors into them, and so it goes back for generations.
In this show are paintings that were started long before I knew how to finish them, waiting for me to return with an answer to their invitation. There are pieces created over half a dozen visits to the same place at the same time, night after night, and still didn’t yield their secret until a year later. Other pieces came off the brush like a balloon, fully formed and as natural as breathing. With each of them, I was invited further in.
This show is not a demonstration of talent or an exploration of theory. It is an open-hearted response to the potential I experienced in the world around us with the aim of sharing it with you.
So, I hope you’ll join me, twenty some years later, as I keep walking Further In.
A Minnesota native from rural Isanti County, Joshua Cunningham currently lives and works in St. Paul. His paintings can be found in private collections throughout the US, and since his last show in March of 2020, his work has been juried into regional and national shows, American Impressionist Society, Oil Painters of America, The American Tonalist Society, Into Nature: International National Plein Air Competition, The Great American Paint In. His work has garnered Best Plein Air from Plein Air Magazine’s Salon Competition, the Paul S Kramer Award at the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts, 2nd Place Richeson International Landscape Competition, 1st Place in 2021 Door County Plein Air Festival, 2nd Place in Red Wing Arts Association Plein Festival and Best of Show in their Plein Air Autumn Invitational, and 2nd Place for Plein Air in 15th Annual Art Renewal Center International Salon which was exhibited in New York and Spain. You may recognize his voice from MPR Art Hounds, where Joshua has done several spots celebrating his fellow artists. This is Joshua’s fourth solo show since joining Groveland Gallery in 2017.
