Giving a Voice to the Art
Giving a Voice to the Art
Understanding and embracing connections to me and to you.
Welcome back! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I hope you are doing well and I just want to thank you for taking the time to read on (my apologies, I know it’s long and meandering). I’m rather new at writing this much, and I know I have a lot to learn, but I’m enjoying the process. I believe it will make me a better artist and enable me to create more meaningful art, and hopefully, I can create something meaningful to you somewhere along the way.
By working on improving my writing through expository translations of my art, I have discovered a deeper understanding of my creative process - both in how I write as well as paint. (On a side note, it’s also helped me to find a path into a more abstract world of art-making by creating shape and form through the translation. While adept at creating abstracted images, I often have difficulty painting truly abstract - even though it’s one of my favorite forms of art). Writing has also helped me to find peace with my creative process - bouncing from thought to paint to story to color, line, and form. There can be meaning and order even in chaos.
My best explanation of the natural progression of my art with my writing would be to picture a large bulletin board with photos, articles, and ideas pinned up, filling the whole space. Now picture the string that wraps around each pushpin, creating the lines that criss-cross the board and allow for patterns to lead to discovery. Most of the time I honestly don’t know whether I’m creating a crime scene, a spy novel, or incomprehensible ravings. Personally, I like to picture the opening credits to “A Series of Unfortunate Events” (the Netflix TV series - and yes, I read the books long before the series came out, and loved them both) where a red string carries us through the images of the story. Or maybe, rather, it’s the last scene in “A Beautiful Mind” with a room of equations and notes covering the walls. This imagery haunts me as I try to understand my most recent creative efforts and is why I titled my latest series “Fractured Stories of Hope” - with chaotic thoughts strung together following a bright red string taking me from pushpin to pushpin, finding new connections and filling me with possibilities and newly found hope along the way.
Most days all I can do is follow that string, collect the pieces together, and attempt to create some sort of order from it all, as in “Between the Lines”, pictured above, which is a digital collage of all the mixed media paintings from this series.
I often think of the work of Surrealists such as Salvador Dali and Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollak as I try to make sense of the art before me. In my latest work, there is certainly a dream element and a need to explore rather than interpret the meaning which is often very personal. As I explore, I also attempt to use patterns, shapes, and colors to portray a sense of orderly chaos.
At the same time, I have a love for a more enchanted view of reality which includes the delicate and lovely drawings found in the forests, flora, and landscapes of animation such as the underground gardens of “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”. (I couldn’t find an image I could share here, but if you haven’t yet seen this animated movie I would highly recommend, especially for the environmentally conscious.) Director Hayao Miyazaki creates worlds in his animation that entice me further into his stories driven by strong and interesting protagonists told on the backdrop of magically mechanical (Howl’s Moving Castle) yet organic environments (Ponyo) in which they exist. Long before I knew of his work, however, I was captivated by the forests of “Sleeping Beauty” and longed to learn the drawing and animation techniques of the infamous Walt Disney Studios.
These influences from Surrealism to fantasy, allow for worlds that can be imagined and created without needing to be bound by our knowledge of reality. It will be no surprise, then, when I came across “A Date with Destino” several years ago, I was rather intrigued by what was then perceived as very conflicting styles (Dali & Disney - considered High Art and Commercial Art) working together to create an animated short interpretation of the song for which it is named, Destino. If you are curious to know more, I would highly recommend this full video documentary about the project, “Dali and Disney, A Date with Destino” before watching the animated short, shown below.
And as my thoughts meander around these art styles and how they influence my own work, I continue to keep writing and trying to understand the recurring images, designs, and patterns that appear in my paintings and whether they can provide any insight or inspiration for the viewer. I do not believe the interpretation of art belongs solely to the artist, nor does the artist’s interpretation need to be the viewer’s. What the art evokes and the stories it tells on its own is also a meaningful part of an art piece. So whether you find insight from my interpretation of the making, or through your own personal interpretation, they are both important and give life and meaning to the art.
In this regard, I hope the following short art translations (which are to be included in my next art book along with more short translations, poetry, paintings, and a few longer essays) provide context but not necessarily wisdom.
The wisdom is yours.
“Forming Bonds in Strength and Love” was created while contemplating the paths we take and the stepping stones that guide us from one moment to the next, forming bonds between the earth and the traveler, the universe and the spirit. Paths crisscross a sky filled with a plethora of worlds formed of the stars, planets, and moons. Each stone has its own story to share - from its galactic origin to its planetary formation, isolation, and tectonic movement to the many footsteps now traversing its rugged surface, finding the strength to continue in each scarred yet solidly determined step. And as each step is taken, we look back and feel the ancestral fortitude guiding us. Supported, we move forward into a shared journey ready to be explored and in the beauty of anticipation, we carefully and confidently take the next step filled with hope, purpose, and the warmth of love firmly wrapped all around.
When does our life not seem our own? The dewdrops of time rolling from one leaf to the next - generations of thoughts collecting, dripping, escaping along lines of fear, doubt, confusion, into a dark unknown. The shadows cast but a false joy forced by an illusion of strength, desire, intellect. Doubts filled with unbidden desire belonging to the past warp the planes of time while trying to make a mark upon each falling leaf. The sky opens, clear and warm, inviting the wind to lift our soul and smooth the scars acquired. Life ends. Life begins. The ginkgo leaves continue their dance across time.
This particular piece, created early in the process of learning digital drawing techniques, quickly filled with bold, purposeful lines and colors alongside tentative and delicately meandering marks. A physical representation of the chaotic thoughts rotating around memories and moments from daily introspections, I struggled to organize the scattered impressions into a personal and creative purpose. I found a road ahead plainly paved juxtaposed with hidden meandering paths carefully winding around and between the designated treads. In time, these little distracted moments provided an arbitrary yet necessary tie between the miles of road behind me and that which was spilling forward into an unknown yet more complete, honest, and purposeful journey.
As with Disney and Dali, the source of my imagery and subject matter can be very personal - harkening upon some of the most loved and memorable snippets of my own timeline. It’s been illuminating, comforting, and at times disconcerting, to find these personal connections from my art to my writing and back again. It’s also been especially humbling. Writing (at least for me) is difficult and despite my best efforts can still be maddeningly disorganized, riddled with errors, and without clarity. But, that’s what practicing and learning are all about. Much like the music student who wants to play beautifully after the first lesson, it is always good to be reminded that even creative endeavors take time and effort to grasp, improve, and master.
So, as I continue with my efforts to improve, thank you for being a part of the audience. As someone who sat through many middle school band concerts, I know that’s not always an easy feat.
And in the end, may my art be the better for the effort, and may it speak meaningfully to you (either now, or maybe some future day with art yet to be made).
~ Jennifer
Credits (in order of appearance): A Series of Unfortunate Events (Book & TV Series), A Beautiful Mind (Movie), Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollock, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Movie), Hayao Miyazaki, Howl’s Moving Castle (Movie), Ponyo (Movie), Sleeping Beauty (Movie), A Date with Destino (Animated Short), Dali and Disney, A Date with Destino (Documentary Short)
My Art (in order of appearance)
Between the Lines
Forming Bonds in Strength and Love
Living in the Shadows
Chaos of Thought
Honorable (not) mentions (no written appearance but on my mind as I wrote): Paul Eluard (Surrealist French Poet), Fantasia (Disney Movie), Noelle Kocot (American Poet)
Please note: All links provided are for your convenience. I do not receive compensation for referrals to credited sources. However, I DO appreciate any purchases from links to my own art that is for sale.