View these photos on flickr.com...

Paintings by
Kris Inman & Robert Urban
October 7th - October 30th, 2009

Kris Inman

Kris Inman likes to paint! He likes to draw! He likes to have a drink, or two!!
Born and raised in Spartanburg, he feels that the small town is only as small as you make it. Art for Kris has always been a way to open up a larger view of the world, and experience other people and cultures. Kris’ philosophy is that painting is more of a social act than something that should be forced.  From Spartan High School through his college career at USCS, notebooks full of doodles kept  him alert and provided a life timeline. Watching cartoons and reading comics panel to panel, he was always been facinated with line and color. Kris breaks from traditional ways of painting and instead incorporates a more expressionist drawing style.


The techniques and job requirements of a commercial/residential painter can be a bit stressful. Forced to paint similar colors on large solid walls can get to a person. I tend to view these as large blank canvases with no hope of getting drawn on, except the occasional kid with crayon or marker. I like that idea. Using recycled paint and leftover building supplies, I’m provided with surface and material to create these images. In my work I attempt to express the thoughtlessness of drawing. Often taking sketches drawn on bar napkins or receipts, I expand images into a meaningful subject matter. The reoccuring images of crowns and bottles symbolize not only myself, but the social interactions and struggles of my peers and society.

Robert Urban

Some of Robert Urban’s earliest memories from my childhood in Wisconsin involve art – drawing in notebooks and going to art exhibits with his older brothers.  One significant exhibit in his development was seeing a Van Gogh retrospective in Chicago.

After moving to the Columbia, South Carolina area, Robert was fortunate to have several outstanding art educators who fostered his development as a young artist.  He was encouraged to apply to the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and was selected into the program.  Attending the Governor’s School changed his life.  He knew then that art would be a major force in the rest of his life. 

Robert attended the University of South Carolina, settling into the B.F.A. program with a concentration in drawing.  During his senior year he started to create paintings that "broke the typical picture plane", in that they became three-dimensional paintings.  Looking back, he now sees that this early work influences his current work in the use of layers.  Artistic influences during this time, and now, include Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Anselm Keifer, and Robert Longo.

After earning my Bachelor's degree at USC, Urban spent a year enrolled in the graduate program in studio art at California State University at Sacramento and briefly attended the San Francisco Art Institute.  During this time, he took his "three-dimensional paintings" a step further by creating several installations and Earth Art.  After some time in California he decided to come back to USC for graduate school to become an art educator. 
 
Upon completion of his Master's degree in art education, Robert spent five years teaching in the Columbia area before accepting a teaching position at Dorman High School here in Spartanburg where he has taught for the past eleven years.  He currently serves as the Fine Arts Department Chairperson.  Robert resides in Moore with his wife Emily and two sons, Zach and Eddie.


I am a painter of landscapes, but not in a traditional sense.  My art primarily reflects the ongoing struggle to coexist between nature and humankind.  This is achieved through the development of my own personal symbology, representing this ongoing saga and my perception of it.  This is my effort to create a sense of meaning from the world: order from chaos and chaos from order.  This is revealed through numerous layers that build up over time, much like the layers that create our lives.  These layers are added and then removed through various methods.  Thus, my theme of opposition is represented in the artistic process itself- creation and destruction. 

Usually a landscape setting I have visited will usually be the initial inspiration for an artwork, or possibly a whole series of pieces.  Personal interactions within the environment- a bike ride, hike, trail run, park visit, or some other outing in nature- often serve as my muse.  The layering process I use when I paint is evolutionary; I never quite know exactly where it will take me visually or conceptually.  The idea and the artwork grow, sometimes over several weeks depending on the size I’m working on, as I create the image.  As I paint, more details emerge regarding the artwork’s meaning, thus finding me, so to speak.  This way of working creates an element of surprise, which I find exciting. 

Depicting the beauty of nature, even in a non-traditional way, reflects an obvious appreciation for what the natural world offers to us.  Environmental concerns for Earth affected by human interaction, remain just below the surface of each artwork I create.

View these photos on flickr.com...