J. Deacon Stone
Deacon has participated at all levels in numerous exhibitions throughout southern Ohio, West Virginia and Michigan, at venues including Ohio University, the St. James Arcade (Huntington, WV), Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI), Chrysler Financial Services Collection (Farmington Hills, MI), the Forum Gallery (Bloomfield Hills, MI), the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center (Birmingham, MI), Flint Institute of Art (Flint, MI), Pullman Square Ancillary Gallery (Huntington, WV), Morris Gallery (Huntington, WV), Marshall University President's Gallery (Huntington, WV).
His sculptures are in several permanent collections in and around Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, including Cranbrook Museum of Art, and in private collections in Los Angeles, Detroit, New Orleans, Boston; Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and Huntington, Hurricane, and Charleston, in West Virginia. He has assisted in the installation and packing of world-class exhibitions from Cranbrook Museum, to the Joan C. Edwards Playhouse, Birke Art Gallery, and Huntington Museum of Art, in Huntington, West Virginia; including Willie Cole's "The Elegba Principle."
Volunteer work includes assistance with the installation of artwork through WV Community Works Projects, and for grant funded organizations including the Apalachian Women's Leadership Program, in Hamlin, WV, and the Huntington Area Food Bank, Huntington, WV.
Deacon grew up at the southernmost point of Ohio near the banks of the river; where three states meet. As an only child of a single mother, resourcefulness and resilience were instilled by practice; the all-too-often necessities for survival in Appalachia.
Resourcefulness proved adequate preparation for education as he was awarded the Freshman Excellence Scholarship from Ohio University. He later earned his BFA from Marshall University in Sculpture, and MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Sculpture.
He has taught at Detroit metro art institutions from the College for Creative Studies, to the Flint Institute of Art.
He Lives with his wife, Jessica E. Stone, a ceramicist, in Huntington, West Virginia.
Artisans Express: Concept Chrome
A submission for the upcoming fundraiser to benefit Cabell Huntington Hospital's Hoops Children's Hospital...
"CONCEPT: CHROME"
A 6' fiberglass train engine model (in either style, or both...?) will be professionally chromed with a quality mirror finish, creating a highly reflective gorgeous gem that will shine in the heart of its home city Huntington, West Virginia.
"Concept: Chrome" is about more than an object, a surface treatment, or spectacle... it is about the heart and soul of a city; its people. More importantly, it is all about enabling people to capture their city, and their vital role in it, in context. Every single photograph of this piece will capture not only the piece itself, but also the reflection of the sky, surrounding buildings and monuments, people, even the photo-taker his or her self! It is the kind of artwork that is conscious of those around it, that gives back more than it takes, that shares the stage; it will welcome all to be a part of the magic to which public art aspires, and is all too often found wanting.
Inspired by Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" at Chicago's Millennium Park, the concept has been in practice daily since 2006, and the sculpture has since become nationally and internationally renown. Why? It certainly is a phenomenon, it is strange and beautiful, it is many things... but in practice, each and every boy and girl, every man and woman who "looks at" the sculpture, sees his or her self; in the city, of the city, they are part of the slipstream. Their gaze and presence breathes life into this static object and animates it, and it in turn animates them, they reveal unknowns to one-another. Each needs the other, such a sculpture speaks to relationships, and our human longing for connection; it is poignant how with such a simple concept, our innermost desires can be laid bare. In this way, we are connected to one-another, and therefore to our city, for it is no more, or less, than us. This is the kind of art that reminds us of that very fact; "Concept: Chrome."
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"Space Shuttle Huntington" piece...
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on (the)... shoulders of giants."
- Isaac Newton, 1676
Today we don't just see further; we go farther. Further in space, technology, medical science, and the payoffs are real-world. When my daughter was diagnosed in utero with single ventricle disease in 2010 my wife and I were, of course, dumbstruck. We didn't know quite what to expect... but as time went on, the picture became more clear. She would survive, require advanced open heart surgeries which would overhaul her entire vascular system to work with a heart that could not be repaired. This would carry her into young adulthood at which point she would need a heart transplant. As I write this, (March of 2015) she is an active, healthy 4 year old who runs circles around her peers! There was a time before this, a time not so long ago, when the story of her life would have been a very short one, with a very sad end indeed. Now we face old challenges with new hope, and advancements in the technological, medical, pharmaceutical, and scientific fields create new and previously unimaginable futures; but they are futures and hopes quite often taken for granted.
The world we see around us is one ripe with potential, and the rich future we imagine is one built upon a deep history of Appalachian ingenuity, hard work, and know-how. The city we see around us, grown-up out of the commerce and trade associated with river and rail was one enabled by the coal in our hills that fueled the industrial revolution, that helped to forged the railways running from coast to coast. It is a heritage of entrepreneurship, and innovation seen in the industries that have called, and even now call our fine city home; manufacturers, textile mills, glass factories, and the like. In few areas is the spirit of furtherance so common to our area more perfectly represented, than in our nation's space program, a representation of the world's push against the edges of possibility, into the unknown beyond.
Space Shuttle Huntington injects our nation's incredible frontier-fording heritage into the Huntington scene, evoking themes of our industrious past, potential-rich present, and a previously unimaginable future, made real.
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