The William Simpson Fine Arts Series at Springfield College presents The Humanity of Place, Paintings by Jeffrey L. Neumann, October 3 - 30, 2024 at William Blizard Gallery, Blake Hall, Springfield College.
I am honored and excited to announce this very special solo exhibition and invite you to attend the Opening on Thursday, October 3rd with an Artist’s Talk at 3:15 and Reception from 4:00 - 5:30.
My 15th, and largest solo show to date, takes place where I earned my B.S. and M.Ed. degrees and studied art under the late Professor Armando Balboni and Professor Emeritus William Blizard, for whom the Gallery is named. It is a meaningful homecoming to share my work in the place where I was a young art student 50 years ago. My family connections to Springfield College run deep. My mother was working as a secretary at the College and my Dad was a grad student at SC when they met. My sister Sandy and I are both Springfield grads. Springfield College not only played a pivotal role in my education, but also in my very existence on the planet.
After earning his Masters Degree from Springfield College in 1953, Dad moved to Iowa to enroll in the doctoral program at University of Iowa. Later that year, when I was born, he took a job coaching football at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. This led to other football coaching positions at University of New Mexico and The University of California. Dad was Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell when he got recruited to return to his alma mater and coach football at Springfield College in 1965. The team had an undefeated season that year. My father went on to have a distinguished career as a professor and college administrator at Springfield College for 30 years.
All the moves my family made during my childhood involved road trips on America’s two-lane highways, much of this was on Route 66. In those pre-Interstate days, my early memories planted the seeds for what was to become the substance of my artistic life. My work is a personal celebration of an America that existed before corporate homogenization took over much of our commercial landscape. Post WWII America was a place where Mom & Pop businesses thrived on Main Street in small towns. People built communities in optimistic pursuit of the American Dream. They hit the road in their new automobiles to “See the USA in a Chevrolet.”
I have traveled these roads and walked through these doors. I have made these images for new generations to get a feeling for the America that I once knew. My hope is that these paintings can evoke a sense of the humanity of place.