(ARTKC365) Penned-Up Expression: Jim Button
Untitled, Ink and Colored Pencil on Paper.
Jim Button
7 a.m.-10 p.m.
8 a.m.-8 p.m.
JavaNaut Cafe
1615 W 39th St
Kansas City, MO
816.716.3657
Hours: 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m-8 p.m. Sunday
Runs through: Jan. 3.
Artist's site: http://www.buttonism.com
Every high school has one: The kid who sits in class and draws instead of taking notes — and is so good (and funny) that you can't help but look at the doodles when you're supposed to be paying attention. Then you get busted by the teacher, and get smacked with detention ... and it's all the artist kid's fault.
I don't even want to think about how many people Jim Button must have gotten into trouble at Shawnee Mission Northwest.
Button's illustrations, on display through the end of the week at JavaNaut Cafe in the Volker neighborhood, will pull you in and keep you occupied for a long time. Some are thought-provoking, some laugh-out-loud funny (seriously) and some are just plain surreal.
Button also did the paper "scrolls" that seem to roll out from door and window frames (echoing and enlarging a motif that shows up in several of his small works, including the untitled piece atop this post).
There's a lot of detail in Button's small pieces, meaning that he must be (a) an incredibly speedy creator or (b) an insomniac. Those are the only two possible explanations for having enough free time to execute them, given the multitude of hats Button wears. Besides his illustration work, he's also a graphic artist, a motion graphics designer and a 3-D artist. Oh, and he's in a band, too; the project, Continents, has just released its debut album.
He writes: Why the need for so many things to occupy my time, you ask? The pursuit of endless knowledge and expression! ... and what fun it is.
That's certainly true of the JavaNaut show. It is a lot of fun ... more fun than quadratic equations and the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, that's for sure. So go ahead and get absorbed; with Button's art to keep things lively, detention never looked so good.
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