Statement
My paintings are meant to convey the particular emotional quality of an experience, memory or dream. What interests me is painting something intangible— like an unexpected feeling that sneaks up on you, like something witnessed out of the corner of the eye or half-remembered, but deeply felt. My hope is that this feeling will somehow be transmitted to the viewer.
Artists of greatest influence to me are those who create powerful emotional responses with intentional, thoughtful handling of their medium and who are continually observing, adapting and learning. To name a few of my favorite painters: Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Etel Adnan, Howard Hodgkin and David Hockney. There are many others.
My process in creating work includes looking, sketching, making many paintings of various sizes, sketching more and re-working. But none of these steps matter unless there’s feeling embedded in the process. On some occasions, if the feeling is a powerful enough driver, the painting happens all at once.
I primarily work in oil paint, but also graphite, ink, water media, digital media, and sometimes cut and torn paper as the need arises.
Bio
While much art strives for a sense of optical realism, Jennifer paints from the subjective reality of felt experience. She makes pictorial signposts which point to emotions through the use of strong color and suggestions of imagery. She draws from moments in time — actual, dreamt and imagined. Her paintings are characterized by an earnest, searching, and raw quality. Growing up in the Portland area, Jennifer now resides in Olympia, Washington. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a focus in oil painting from Ohio Wesleyan University, Jennifer went on to attend the University of Puget Sound receiving a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy. In 2015 Jennifer scaled back her work in health care significantly in order to devote herself more fully to painting. Locally, she has studied under the guidance of artist Simon Kogan for much of the past decade. She has been honored with merit and purchase awards from regional juried exhibitions.