Jonn Herschend

Artist Statement

As usual, I shall be a bad narrator, and as usual, you will think my story is exaggerated.

Goethe, "The Sorrows of Young Werther"

I like my stories badly told. I like what happens when someone gets off the subject and tries to figure out how he got there. I like the phrase, “Where was I going with this?” This is the moment when the story seems to rock between going over the edge or going back to where it was before it went off track. When it goes over the edge, the story is no longer about a plot. It’s about the bare elements of narrative: the words, the paint, or the light in the frame. It’s about letting everything collapse into a grayness in the hopes that there will be a way out. It’s a little like that and a little like trust. But it’s not about relying on a pre-established structure for reading or writing. It requires the reader, viewer, listener to rely on his or her wits, which—politically—is the most important act anyone can do these days.