ARTIST BIO
Mr. Viles received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute
and his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Mr. Viles was also selected
to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His artwork
has been included in over forty exhibitions in the Mid-Atlantic and Mid-Western
regions of the United States as well as abroad. Mr. Viles has served as
an Arts Administrator for the Mayor’s Office in Baltimore and received
numerous grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, including the 2001
Individual Artist Award in Visual Arts and nineteen Artist-In-Education
residencies.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Drawing from observation has always been a part of my vocabulary as an artist, but not the focus. The last twenty years of my artwork is clearly abstract. However, my recent paintings are representational. I feel as though I have stumbled out of one forest into another.
It started when I visited Japan a few summers ago. My captivation with the gardens and temples in Kyoto seem to be the point of departure. The purpose of my visit to Japan was to draw. The stones, placed ever so carefully and the endless use of bamboo, fascinated me. So, I began to make drawings and paintings of stones and bamboo.
The paintings are small cropped views of pattern and color. There is poetry in natural materials and handmade objects. A hand woven thatch roof and a long bamboo fence have a rhythm as you pass. I continue to travel to find new rhythms and patterns as subjects to make paintings from. As I have been trained in the traditions of western art it is important to expand upon that training. My most recent journey was to study and draw from the art and architecture of Thailand.
I am after something that painting from observation accommodates in the moment. It is as though I were a jazz musician who stopped working on jazz and took time out to write classical compositions.