05/27/2026
๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ
โIโm going to build me a boat
With these two hands
Itโll be a fair curve
From a noble plan
Let the chips fall where they will
โCause Iโve got boats to build.โ
Within the lyrical wisdom of Guy Clarkโs 1992 ballad Boats to Build, lies the central gesture of this collection of paintings and prints by Muskegon native and Milwaukee artist Jimmy Cobb.
As far as paintings go, it is easy to lack the buoyancy needed to leave the still waters of the wall and glean gently into the swift current of the mind. The intention behind this body of work is to give way to the winds of expression through a combination of sculptural and painting practices.
Boats to Build is a collection of work from the last few years of a budding studio practice Cobb has developed in Milwaukee, WI. There is much to be found on either shore, but greater yet to be discovered in the water between his two homes.
Visually, all the works are charged by the age-old relationship between vessel and water. There is a gesture, broad as it may be, that exists because a rigid object of human invention must endure in a land of ever-changing nature water. While some compositions abstractly recall the colors of a mid-lake passage, others flatly acknowledge a vessel as it lies, each giving its own air to the beauty found in proximity to this relationship.
Boats, mostly sailboats, are pictured here in their various positions. Sculpture exists for painting as boats exist for people, and for seeing that we are made all the wiser.
