CORNEL W. WILDE

Biography

California native Cornel W. Wilde (b. 1967) is a mixed media artist incorporating photo emulsion, gold leaf, and encaustic on panel, stone, and glass. He has been called by Alan Shuptrine “… a preservationist; through his vision and his painterly images, we are reminded of a truth-abandoned and decaying houses, farms, bridges, and monuments all make clear our dying South. Juxtaposing this truth, and perhaps as a breath of life, Cornel illustrates that texture and tonal dance of light and shadow with his images.”

The youngest son of famed actor Cornel Wilde, the artist studied traditional arts (drawing, watercolor, oils) through high school and college, as well as writing and film. After his parents’ deaths, Mr. Wilde took a hiatus from art, spending time pursuing script writing and some work as a rewriter. In the end, he found both to be unsatisfying. After moving from Los Angeles to Atlanta, he started to work in the arts again. While taking a course in printmaking, he learned of a weekend class in Polaroid transfer. Intrigued by the idea of being able to manipulate a photograph into a printed image with the effect of a watercolor, he had found his medium.

Mr. Wilde notes, “I have always been interested in history, especially our everyday history. Coming from Los Angeles, where most things are bulldozed every twenty years or the cities’ expansion simply rolls over older locations, I have found in the South that there is still a living history. Old churches and barns, abandoned houses at the end of forgotten roads, even the streams, rocks and trees seem to all hold a story.” He began to photograph these places with the idea of using the photos for the paintings or drawings, but he never could escape his interest in the captured image. He soon realized that through exploring some alternative photo processes, he might be able to use a photograph, instead of a painting or drawing, to convey a story. So began his work using the photographic images, mixing them with the other old photos and documents he found to form collages.

As Mr. Wilde started photographing pathways with bare trees and deteriorating barns choked with vines, he discovered that one of his primary themes was the intersection of man and nature. “The fringes – out of the cities and suburbs – is where one can find nature slowly taking back what man has built, like grass growing through cracks in the sidewalk,” he explains. This exploration of structure and nature led the artist to find a second main subject: botanical photographs. Shot in the studio under controlled lighting, Mr. Wilde feels they are somewhat opposite of his outdoor work, yet their importance is also about seeing the shape and form of nature and truly observing the things often overlooked by the common eye: an old building or a pretty flower, for example. In these flowers, he attempts to find the balance between beauty and mystery.

At the same time, he began searching for ways to print his photographs that would not only have more of the effect of a painting, but also try to capture the tactile feeling of the subject. Mr. Wilde found that, by incorporating different metal leafs to act as the base tone for his work, he could control much of the mood, and give the sense of viewing something closer to a memory. He attempts to create images that make the viewer feel as if they are somewhere between the conscious and the subconscious; simultaneously peaceful and foreboding; somewhere between being awake and dreaming.

Mr. Wilde has resided in Chattanooga, Tennessee since 1999. He is represented by Gold Leaf Designs and Gallery.

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