Tora No Tsume Painting

Jon Rannells is an award winning actor, filmmaker and self-taught mixed media artist, living and working in Highland Park, California. "I feel like the goal of my art and indeed most art is the effective unlocking of the unconscious mind. To find that ‘sweet spot’ where grace and happy accidents have as much or more providence over the finished piece as original intent and design. I draw a lot of initial inspiration from decontextualizing and attempting to reconstruct overlooked aspects of our manmade environment. Whether that be the compelling patterns and textures of a cracked sidewalk, a ripped billboard, patches of rust, or decaying walls, I’m constantly taking pictures or sketching little drawings in my sketchbook as a starting point. This then tends to meet head-on with experimenting with building and found materials. It’s not unusual, as an example, to find me aimlessly roaming the aisles of Home Depot, wondering after the uses of all manner of things. So the end piece is therefore a combination of original inspiration meets design, meets experimentation, meets, at its best, my unconscious running amok. My goal is to achieve a certain organic density in my work. To create something layered enough so as not to be easily digested in one bite, so to speak. A piece the viewer can find continued joy, perhaps even for years to come, in the act of mentally decoding and harmonizing the image. I also hope, in a small way, I’m pushing people to a take a closer look at their surrounding environment and find interest and beauty in unlikely places."