“Three Marian Graces” mixed media on Mylar
“I don’t want to confuse you, I want to excite you,” said John A. Hancock about his art.
Like most of his work, this exhibit, open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Feb. 28 in Elizabethtown College’s Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, incorporates direct observations, editing, overlays and organics and geometric images interrupted by realism and abstraction.
Incorporated into his work is traditional, classical and modernists styles, which mix together to create a post modernist feel. “I spent 20 years trying to get less and less on the paper. I was editing down more and more, ’til I got to the point where I really love what I’m doing,” said Hancock. “But then I take the editing of two images and layer them on top of each other or mashed them together.”
I am aligning shapes and images. I’m blocking your view, interrupting views…”
Hancock was born in 1956 and lived throughout the Southeast and the Midwest of the United States. As a child, he always knew he wanted to be an artist, but was not sure he wanted to earn a living that way. He was interested in being a historian, an archeologist or a marine biologist. However, once he got to college, he realized he could study all of these subjects and incorporate them into his artwork.
Hancock includes what he calls natural family history in his work, which he describes as the idea of using natural history and family history in a way that allows you to see that they are metaphors and symbols for things happening. “I am aligning shapes and images. I’m blocking your view, interrupting views, foregrounding things and pushing them back; interrupting the normal way we would look at things,” said Hancock.
Besides creating art, Hancock enjoys walking through the countryside and old neighborhoods to enjoy nature. “I love getting out and walking through old neighborhoods and finding things, “ said Hancock. “I also enjoy going to the library and finding old books with mathematical diagrams, naturalists drawing, birds and maps and incorporating them into my work.