Sky Jones is a painter from the American West.. Born October 3, 1947 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He graduated from the University of Utah in 1971 with a bachelor degree in art. He has written two books on art and life. The first, The Artists' Bible, written in 1983, is a compendium of successful actions for the Master Draftsman. The second book, Spirits, was written in 1984. It is a book dedicated to Sky's "view from the other side", a look at the varieties and natures of spirits and their relationship to life and art. Both books are profusely illustrated with paintings by Jones that reflect the philosophy of the text.

Mysticism and the spirit are the underlying themes which permeate his subject matter as they have in all great art from prehistoric times through the Renaissance and into the modern era.

Jones' active imagination and perceptions give us other worlds and wild places to view. All great art is visionary in scope; peeking into man's minds, reflecting into dim corners and through wide gates of imagination and fantasy. in that sense, art is of the spirit - and Jones' work is no exception.

Artists decorate and embellish the thoughts that are dear to them. They express their feelings through their craft and, in their own ecstasy, give us rapture.

Jones, conceptually, has similar arteries of thought as those which historically motivated the Romantics and Symbolists. Upon closer examination, we find the fundamentals of Abstraction graduating into Expressionism in his work. Surrealism is no stranger to Jones; the subconscious gestalt in his work leaves hidden messages waiting for the viewers to discover the magic.

Jones makes an eclectic statement that engenders a salute to work of such diverse masters as:

William Blake        Kahlil Gibran
Jackson Pollack     Pablo Picasso
Ernest Fuchs         Salvador Dali
Michelangelo         Wassily Kandinski
Marc Chagal           Joan Miro
Max Ernst              Redon
Hans Hoffman       Frank Stella

A great part of Jones' popularity is that he simply animates spirits, pulling entities out of the paint at each step. His statements are a synthesis of all that surrealism intended to explain. The bottom of his bucket is the base of the subconscious mind.

A drawing is an explanation of what the artist knows about the subject. Jones knows and draws life in full flux.

A man structures and aligns his art and life to his adopted philosophy whether or not he is aware of it. One's philosophy always monitors and directs one's communications. It controls the quality, as well as the nature of one's emanations. Jones has a particular all-encompassing philosophy that acknowledges and shows all points of life in each work. Each piece has an environment with figures in it doing something.

Jones deals in imagery, that is layers upon layers of 3D forms overlaid and interwoven. These forms constantly twist and turn though space metamorphosing into animal, plant and human forms. Sometimes they blend into oceans, or vast deserts.

Each work of art radiates a wonder or awe that involves the viewer in the phantasm. Each piece has tremendous motion and energy. Each piece has multiple layers of meaning and significance attached to the forms. There is a amazement at each juncture, phantasmagorical. Each piece is in fact, psychedelic with dazzling technique. The means can be judged by how well they do this. Jones' methods are flawless.

He wants to do nothing but entertain and amuse us with educating "antics for the eye". These are not cartoons. He takes us into solid places that exist only in dreamland.

Sky opens up doors, windows. He knocks holes in ceilings and pounds down walls into a place never before viewed on earth: a place of dancing rhythms in crystalline vistas.

Tight. He is a tight painter. His pieces appear marbled and jewel-draped, encrusted with microcosmic detail at every point. Jones pays attention to the finest details. His paintings work whether viewed up close or from a distance. Not all art does this. Only the best art does. Each piece has a complete range of texture. All of his work has lot of sensation and a lot of colorful energy.

A provenance document would cover a little bit of the motivating factors and purposes behind the artist's work. Questions like: Why did he paint that, and why like that? what is he trying to say?

To Sky Jones the first concern is in the "beauty of the moment." The beauty in the illusion, the beauty in the dream. Sky's second concern is opening a door for others to dream with their eyes open. A place of total weightless freedom for the imagination. A place beyond the stars. A place beyond thoughts, a place of pure pleasure. Pure pleasure in sight and texture. Pure pleasure in free from. Jones' purpose is our pleasure. To, me that is valuable. The painting I have hanging across from my desk gives me a high value escape process into any thing that I can dream of.

Fundamentally, Sky Jones paints spirits and anthropomorphic essences in three dimensional spaces. The atmosphere seems always to be a celebrative nature - with spiraling streamers, multi colored balloon planets. At times, it is very serious, yet whimsical in nature. Gold, silver and fine metallic particles are standard in Sky Jones creations. The Entities live in a world of gold and silver linings.

Much of Sky's work is involved in landscapes and seascapes, showing the effects and influences of water on the terrain. He covers the gamut, showing his knowledge of life's scenarios: Waves crashing on shorelines, water cascading down from high mountains; looking down gigantic canyon caverns; flying across desert terrain, peeking into heaven or hell, serious or simply joking. Indeed, he is versatile.

In Sky's book Spirits the spirits are amorphic. They are shape shifters. From one viewpoint, they are one thing. From another, they are something else.

Sky captures the flowing amorphic essence of spirits. In Sky's own words "I release the spirits from the paint. They are always there, encased - waiting to sing, to dance, and otherwise express and entertain themselves. They are willing to do their best to support the creator. Most important, they always have something supportive to say. As my friends, they have as their prime purpose the stimulation of the creativity and imagination of the viewer."

The techniques that Sky Jones has perfected are organic lacquering combined with organic acrylic marbling and water color washes. Paint application and control goes from brush work, to spray, marbling even finger painting. Often the paintings have Sky's actual finger prints in paint in the painting itself, or on the back of the pieces. This shows that the artist did produce the piece himself

In a world of laser-computerized, silk screen and photo offset printing, often the artist has little or nothing to do with the actual application of paint on the piece of art. Multiple prints taken from one painting are certainly valuable, but there will never be a reproduction made that has the true value of a one of a kind original.

From personal preference, as founder of the Banker Art Museum, I have chosen to avoid reproductions in museum acquisitions, yet encouraging the artists that we deal with to experiment with publishing as another broader means of creative expression. In short, the museum only certifies one of a kind originals done by the artist's own direction, showing the artist's "subtle variations and choices". I would personally like to be communicated with directly by the artist, rather than listen to recordings. Reproductions of the finest quality are recordings. The closer to the artist we can get, the more information becomes available to us. Reproductions hide much of the artist's initial expressions. There is nothing like an original or live music.

All artists are dreamers. This one is a dream time extraordinary. May Mr. Sky Jones have a long life producing prolific amounts of fine art such as these wonder works.

In a conservative mode, I wish Sky Jones the honor he deserves, and will continue to promote his genius in beauty. This information and the illustrations in the book The Treasure prove my point.