PAUL WALKER: `ALONG THE WAY'

Artist Paul Walker hung his acrylic "Two Lunas" at Gallery 100.

Paul Walker was afraid to paint certain things when he was younger. Things like butterflies and flowers, for him the too-traditional subjects of artists.

With age came a new appreciation for attempting to capture the natural world on canvas.

"I saw I could approach it differently," Walker says.

The changes Walker's artwork has gone through will be on display in a show titled "Along the Way" beginning Friday at Gallery 100. An opening reception for the artist will be held at the gallery, 6 N. Sprigg St., from 5-7 p.m. Friday.

David Baldwin will provide classical guitar music during the reception.

Walker studied art at Southeast but with a family to support found himself pouring most of his energy into advertising, a profession he calls "a blend of art and science."

He had his own advertising agency for awhile and now works for the Southeast Missourian's Targeted Publications.

Most of Walker's early work, which dates to the late 1960s, was done in acrylic, though a few pencil sketches will be on display. But most of the acrylics on display are from the past four years. The subjects vary from people to telephone poles to frogs, and the colors are intense.

He approaches the natural world differently by bringing together elements that wouldn't ordinarily co-exist, or by painting a butterfly much too big for its surroundings. "They are characteristically not dealing with reality, even though it might look like reality," he says.

Walker's newest love is computer-generated art, created with a program called "Painter 4." This program allows the artist to use the computer mouse, an electronic graphic tablet and cordless pen in much the same way as the traditional brush, pen and pencil. "The (Painter) tools react like their counterparts," he says.

Some of these subjects remain traditional, like the portrait titled "Your Move." The alien giddiness of "Bubble Dance" is anything but traditional.

Look closely and you'll see that the title cards for the exhibition constitute a mini-exhibition of computer-generated art in themselves.

When he first began creating art, Walker thought of it as a way to make a living. "We were all going to school so we could apply what we'd learned to earning money," he said.

Maturity changes both the art and the reasons for creating it, he says. Art has become a discipline and a meditation that may not provide his livelihood but is very important to his life.

"What it really did for me was create a flow, which resulted in joy and peace," Walker says.

"... All woes disappear and time goes away.