Artist's Biography: Beginning his life in Bay City, Michigan, Jay Handy's journey into the world of art has been complex and winding. There was no childhood art classes or cinematic big breaks. Instead, Jay was living in foster care during his teens, his dream of attending art school remaining just that - a dream. At 18, the idea of attending any school seemed out of reach; Jay had become homeless, the final chapter in a difficult childhood. His art today reflects the synthesis of a natural nostalgia for youth and his own tumultuous past. Through the help of his best friend's father, Jay began attending Michigan State University. Though he still felt the pull of art, he succeeded in his studies and ultimately made his way into the Harvard Business School. Yet, even while inhabiting the world of business, Jay never left his love of art behind. From lino block printing on his kitchen table in his teens to creating encaustic paintings in his basement in his 40s and attending weekend watercolor workshops in his 50s, art has always lingered in the periphery of his life. Jay's life has been a paradox that parallels his art today; he strides two paths simultaneously, that of the businessman and that of the artist. These two seemingly contradictory roles mirror the characteristic contrast underlying all his work. While he experimented with encaustic painting, Jay finally settled upon a unique formula that has become the language through which he creates the otherworldly atmosphere his work is known for - etching and chine colle. Jay finally answered his lifelong call to dedicatedly create art by devoting a portion of every week to his art. In this time, his passions for art and his production of art flourished. Though he traveled a winding path, Jay Handy finally arrived at his lifelong dream and is now pursuing his MFA at the Lesley University College of Art and Design. He now resides in Madison, Wisconsin.
Artist's Statement: My art is an exploration of memory, both in its function and its feeling. When we think back on memory, it's never quite the same as the initial experience that it was born of - a unique and complicated aura now surrounds it. Depending on the moment in time, it may be tinged with a hint of tenderness or a sense of forlornness. I find myself caught on a memory, turning it over and over in my mind to uncover every unique thread of nostalgia, of joy, of tension. The memory becomes a distinct moment in time, with so clear a life and story all its own that I'm compelled to transform it from a vision to a tangible image. My use of etching and chine colle recreate the memory and transmute the unique qualities that frame it into a language that can speak to viewers and stir within them that shared experience of nostalgia and memory. Regardless of who we are, where we're from, or what time period we've lived through, we each have our own experience of memory and the often bittersweet qualities that those memories are preserved in. My art is the translation of memory from floating fragments to captured moments.