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| Nick Shepard Floral Still Life with Seedless Watermelon, Cacti, and Bagged Citrus 2010 |
My professor, Rachel Miller invited fellow Sacramento State Assistant Professor Nick Shepard to speak to our Baroque art history class about his work on April 13th, 2017. She invited him to give a talk that would supplement our discussion about Dutch still lifes in the seventeenth century. Nick Shepard has been working on a series entitled
De bekende wereld that uses techniques pioneered by the Dutch still-life masters of the Baroque to encourage the view to question where our household items come from and whose lives does it impact on its journey to the consumer. In his statement provided on his website, he writes "De bekende wereld is the known world, made slightly unfamiliar.
Visual beauty, emotional directness, light effects, and naturalism
evoke the Dutch masters, not to look back, but to look at contemporary
life in America.". He talked about how he wanted his work to have layers. He wanted there to be a level of aesthetic beauty that is just pleasing to look at but if you are curious enough to get past that, you can find a world of complex questions that require the viewer to look inward about their consumption and possession of items. I think that he is very successful in that pursuit. His photos are all beautifully composed with the perfect amount of detail included to bring to mind the works of Dutch still life arts from the seventeenth century. I found this lecture to be extremely relevant to what I was learning in both my modern and contemporary art history courses. Nick Shepard applies old Dutch master techniques to contemporary real world problems. He is drawing upon historical means to voice current but familiar concerns as a way to comment on the similarities in consumer culture that was budding during the 17th century and now dominates the 21st century. This lecture was also interesting to me because I frequently look to the past for aesthetic inspiration to express current feelings in my art. It was really nice to see an artist taking that influence and creating something really unique and informed.
You can visit Nick Shepard's website at http://nickshepard.com/dbw/
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