Erik Jerezano Headbones Commentary

The Drawers - Erik Jerezano Commentary written by Julie Oakes

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Narrative?

Eric Jerezano made them up. He brought forth memories from his image bank and gave them physical presence. He gave form to hybridized creatures, bred from another culture and birthed through a channel that extended from his Mexican roots to present itself as an adoptable creation. Then he made them do things. He allowed them to develop right before our eyes, to transform from one fantastic being into another. Like a masterful shaman who guides the uninitiated through a transformation rite, Jerezano hints at how they came to be but like smoke before magical mirrors, the line, modeling and tints obliterate the exact manner of change. The perception is fogged so that what has transpired is not a surety. Jerezano remains the grand magician who holds the secret knowledge. The way these new creatures appear remains a mystery known only to the initiated.

Alakazam! A mediumistic evolution took place. Ritual magic, with the attendant masks, is coupled to the wonder of making marks on paper. With second sight, Jerezano communicated from the subterranean depths of the psyche. We had been invited to view the rites of passage but we are left with a feeling of suspense as if their may be yet another change.

There is a purity to the private tales of wonder that are played out upon the paper, as if a child had become so involved in his fantasy that it grew beyond his proportions and spoke back to him. This is a visual language a few steps removed from hieroglyphics and although the reading allows us entry into a narrative, the meaning is not clear. Jerazano offers us more information than can be ordered as he awes with the mutations of his characters.