“Diving Into Planet Earth” by Jaylen Walker

Greensboro College senior, Jaylen Walker, put up his senior exhibition on April 19^th, 2022 in the Anne Rudd Gaylon Gallery in the Cowan Building at Greensboro College. The show will be up until May 7^th.

“Diving Into Planet Earth” shows audiences that Jaylen Walker represents “the ecosystem using [his] own newly learned artistic skills and knowledge of egg tempera and watercolor painting,” as stated in his artist statement. Walker elaborates in his statement on the effect of human wastes and neglect toward the planet earth and how we tend to forget that other creatures besides ourselves inhabit this planet. He depicts environmental awareness and practices using paint.

Walker used primarily egg tempera and watercolor. In his work. “jellyfish,” the layers were achieved by “working quickly and repeatedly going over a certain spot with the egg emulsion,” as stated. His works were also influenced by the psychoanalytic theories of sublimination as he began to notice repetition in his actions and thoughts.

In his senior exhibition, Walker’s pieces consist of paintings of sea creatures such as jellyfish, rays, and orcas. Walker chose to paint sea creatures because, according to his artist statement, “sea creatures take the most impact within the forgotten studies of proper rules and respectful actions towards the ocean and planet earth.”

He states that he found a connection in his art to his own personal thoughts about the ecosystem and found that they were very similar to artist Maya Lin’s earthworks and how “she describes her attempts to integrate her work within each space and topography.” Because of this, most of her works are about being within nature or changing the environment in itself. For example, her wave field in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is literally waves in a field of grass – so the environment itself has been changed.

To learn more about Jaylen and his works, please visit the Anne Rudd Gaylon Gallery inside the Cowan building of Greensboro College!

Congratulations, Jaylen! Greensboro College will miss you dearly and we can not wait to see what the future holds for you and where you take your outstanding artistic abilities!

Featured image taken by Destinee Allen.