Jim Butler

Artist's Statement There are 3 main strands to my practice, drawing, printmaking and bookworks. Each of these fulfils a different purpose, although they are all inter-related. Drawing, for me, is concerned with interrogating the visual world around me. Sometimes this will take the form of finished drawings or compositions, sometimes of more open-ended fragments and sketches which will inform other work. At all times, my primary concern is the codification of the visual rather than its reproduction. The drawings and collages form a visual vocabulary, the basis of visual languages I develop in other areas of my practice. Printmaking is a chance to develop these fragments, mediated by a print process. Each of the print process I employ, etching, relief, screen, requires a different way of considering and developing the elements of sketchbook drawings, whether this is through texture, pattern, mark or colour. I often work in series of prints, as this is a chance to develop inter-related visual ideas and compositions. Bookworks are exciting for me because the form and structure allow the chance to develop these ideas further and reveal a personal visual language through a bound sequence. I am particularly interested in the tactile aspect of the book, the intimate relation to the viewer / reader and how these considerations influence the development of a book. Ideas of memory and place are explored in my book works. CV Listing Jim Butler was born in Dublin and lives in Cambridge where he runs the B.A. in Illustration & Animation and M.A. Illustration & Book Arts at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. Since completing an M.A. in Communication Design at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2001, he has combined his own practice, centred on drawing, printmaking and artist's books, with university teaching. His work has been exhibited widely in galleries in the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Mexico and the USA, while his commissioned illustration work has included international clients such as Adidas and Siemens. His work is in a number of public collections including TATE Britain; British Library; Joan Flasch Collection, Art Institute of Chicago; Museum Meermanno, The Hague; and the National Irish Visual Arts Library, Dublin