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“This Exit”

billboard, 35.5’ x 8’
by Jonas Hart

Jonas Hart ’01, Logan, Ohio, has been painting large landscapes for years. Earlier this summer, one of them became an actual part of the landscape.

Jonas is currently studying painting at the Ohio University in Athens. For one class assignment, students were asked to create projects that fit with their display sites. Many did large-scale installation pieces designed specifically for the galleries where they are shown.

In the last year or so, Jonas has begun painting landscapes from photographs taken while out driving his van. For his OU class, he decided to paint a particular billboard site north of Nelsonville, Ohio, on U.S. Rt. 33, onto billboard-sized panels. The painting even showed the billboard, so that when passersby looked at the billboard, they saw exactly what they were seeing from their vehicles.

Titled “This Exit,” the panels took up 320 square feet. Nauman Outdoor Advertising of Lancaster, Ohio, delivered the panels to Jonas’ home, where he built frames on two sides of his carport to hold them. It took five weeks to paint them. Nauman then hung them, free of charge, on June 6. The billboard stayed up until the end of June.

“[A billboard] is a public space, so it’s very accessible to people who wouldn’t necessarily be excited or comfortable going to a traditional gallery,” Hart told The Athens News. “People also may not be interested in art, but they will hopefully enjoy seeing … something they can just look at driving by.”

He added that he likes the idea of using a billboard as a tool for art and that he is drawn to looking at the landscapes in southern Ohio, particularly on the drive between Athens and Logan. The billboard was there to remind people to appreciate these landscapes, he said. “I’m trying to point out what we’re not paying attention to all the time.”