Jon Wessel was attracted to the visual aesthetic that paper and graffiti produce on walls, the random patterns created by the multiples of the same poster next to multiples of another, without cares for formal issues of composition and design. The layers of paper became very thick at times, providing an almost archeological record of passing time.

Gradually the found paper was combined with the artists own gestural mark making, because they both captured a sense of time: marks reveal the movement and energy of the maker, while the layered posters conveyed a sense of time, place and design.

The artist has shown in Arizona, New York, Texas, California, and Scotland. Wessel was educated in Paris, France, UC Berkeley, Pennsylvania State University and finished his education at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco in 1985.

“My appropriated materials remind me that fame and notoriety are fleeting, that human endeavors fade with time. These ideas provide me some comport and hope, I find myself left with the present moment, a place of full possibility.”