Mattingly, Jim

1934-2005

Jim Mattingly was a Professor of Art, Emeritus, at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon.He completed his formal education, both undergraduate and graduate levels, at San Jose State University (then College) in California.Upon leaving graduate school, he took a position at the Alberta college of Art in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.Later, in 1968, he took a position at Western Oregon University (then Oregon College of Education) in Monmouth, Oregon.During his years at Western he developed the printmaking program in the Art Department, served as Art Department Head from 1977 to 1986, was the first studio instructor at Western to be promoted to Full Professor in 1980, and received the campus-wide Faculty Honors Award in 1985.He enjoyed teaching a great deal.”much more important than my teaching were my students-the many wonderful people I came to know throughout my teaching career.I am very proud of the many achievements they have since accomplished in their own right.”Mattingly retired from WOU in December 1994.

In the public sector, Mattingly served on the Board of Directors of the Salem Art Association for thirteen years and was a long-time member of their Exhibits Committee.He was also one of the first members of the State Capitol Exhibitions committee in the 1970’s.Additionally, Jim was involved with the Northwest Print Council for more than 22 years.He was the second President of the NWPC and a member of the Board of Directors for the remaining years.Jim was awarded a NWPC Honorary Life Membership in 1998 and recieved a NWPC Honorary Life Membership “Extraordinaire” in 2003.
Mattingly exhibited his work in many venues across the U.S. and in Canada, Australia, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and China.His works are in numerous collections, including: BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY, NORTHWEST PRINT COUNCIL, SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY, SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY, WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY, HAMERSLY LIBRARY, WASHINGTON ARTS COMMISSION, OREGON ARTS COMMISSION, AND HALLIE FORD ART MUSEUM.

ARTIST STATEMENT:
The incisive line and the light and dark of aquatints, unique to intaglio, fascinate me.Their mixtures abet my interest in social commentary.Intaglio welds these elements to the paper’s surface.I sense joy in this permanence in spite of paper’s inherent fragileness.
The vapid level of societal standards has bee a rousing subject for me to exploit in discarded commercial materials as mixed media.Their selective adaptation enjoins much of what I see into a reflective survey of contemporary society on its own terms.In recent years, intaglio monoprints nicely approximate the visual appeal of mixed media with the same jarring effect.

Color is my painting venue.Years of teaching color theory have beset my mind with skills to evoke an essence of Oregon’s Willamette Valley landscape, couched in subtractive secondary pigments.My treatment of landscape explores beauty and grandeur, devoid of the politics used to manage it.I feel a strong kinship with the Ashcan School of American Painting, particularly with Edward Hopper.

I have done art since I was a child.I feel it is because my primary means of understanding came-comes to me-through seeing.Art is for me, a means to communicate the significance of what I have seen in life experience.

Art comes easily to me; it is the most important employment of my time.It is what my being is focused on.I strive in every moment of my production to mold my visual choices into the sublime decisions demanded.I do not do art as a recreation; it is work form e-my life’s major work, and my most commanding challenge.It is as if doing art is my duty, as though I have bee assigned to do it.

Doing art is a summons that overrides the ordinariness of life.Doing art validates my life; it always has. I hope it always will.
Jim Mattingly

Arapaho Woman Black Horn Boot Print Buffalo Badge Chair Drawing II Chair Drawing III Chair Drawing IV Chair Drawing V Chair Drawing VII Chair Drawing VIII Chair Print III Chief Goose Cowgirl Print I Dark Eye Diptych Hearts Etching 76 State II Etching 76 State III Etching 77 Etching 79 Feather Print III Fish Allegory I Fish Allegory II Heart Hostage Hunkpapa Sioux Bride Indian Woman Land Sale Four Box Lot Land Sale Gravel Pit Lot Land Sale Lots 447 448 Land Sale Surveyors Tall Slot Lot Land Sale Vest Pocket Lot Long Dog Mattingly Mrs. Susanna Old Wolf Print-85 Print 80 Print 81 Print 86 Print 87 Print 88 Print 88 Stage II Print 90 Print 92 Print 93 Print 96 Quana Parker Red Chair Print II Red Shirt Robin Swainson's Hill Satanta The Winged Nike Bill Thrush Mountain Turkey Print Two Heartscapes Wolf Robe II