Jen Jovan Art Musings and Random Thoughts

Two Possibilities

2/22/2022

Two Possibilities

"Two Possibilities" (a diptych) - acrylic on cradled wood canvas, 16 x 8 x .75. Ready to hang. Available here and at Artfinder.

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke

I grew up on science fiction.

My copy of Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles was threadbare before I graduated high school. Heinlein, Van Vogt, Asimov...worlds imagined and yet seemingly possible. Science fiction tackled all the big questions without hesitation, made me think, allowed a broad view of what could be.

The older I become, the more those big questions rattle around in my noggin, and sometimes spill into the paint.

The wild thing about these questions is that likely none of them will be answered in my lifetime. In this world of fast-paced technological growth, invention and speed, answers to the big stuff still remain (pardon the pun) light-years away. And so we can seek knowledge without answers, practice the ability to question and query and conjecture and ponder and sit with the wondrousness of it all.

Which is something I do while painting.

If you want to stuff your noggin with some fascinating knowledge, check out Kurzgesagt -in a nutshell on YouTube. Because I don't want to be the only one contemplating what happens if the moon falls into the earth. :)

About the art: beginning with two panels and some black gesso, creating shapes with a rubber wedge. Adding in colors to the shapes, following the thread wherever it meanders and then discovering a forest of sorts emerging in a celestial world. This piece is finished with a layer of cold wax.

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Come to Your River

2/15/2022

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"Come to Your River" - acrylic on cradled wood panel, 11 x 14. Ready to hang. Available Feb 20-21 at Artistic Souls Gallery.

Come to your river
I will come to your river
I will come to your river
Come to your river
(Wash my soul)
I will come to your river
(Wash my soul)
I will come to your river
Wash my soul again

Carry away my dead leaves
Let me baptize my soul with the help of your waters
Sink my pains and complains
Let the river take them, river drown them
My ego and my blame
Let me baptize my soul with the help of your waters
Those all means are so ashamed
Let the river take them, river drown them
- IBEYI

Come to Your River

The inspiration for capturing emotion often begins with a song. This song sits in the cradle of my emotional anchor and undulates like waves. Let the river drown my "pains and complains..my ego and my blame." oh yes, yes please.

About the art: beginning with a black gesso'd background and working from dark to light. A colored pencil scribble sketch, layers of watery paint in light washes. Resisting the desire to overly define, allowing color to speak a story and dark shapes to define the features.

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A Murder Most Fowl

2/7/2022

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"A Murder Most Fowl" (skewing Jacques-louis David's "The Death of Marat") - acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 16 x 20. NFS

"I haven't checked, but I highly suspect that chickens evolved from an egg-laying ancestor, which would mean that there were, in fact, eggs before there were chickens. Genius."
- Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The studio has gone to the birds.

Well, to the chickens, anyway.

When you live with another artist, you might find yourself in a challenge to render a version of this, that or the other in your own particular style in a sort of soft paint-off competition. This time, the challenge was CHICKEN.

And since I only recently learned of "The Death of Marat", and was smitten with its beauty, it seemed only natural to place a fowl in the scene and skew Jacques-louis David with a wink (or a cluck?)

A Murder Most Fowl (skewing Jacques-louis David's "The Death of Marat")

Skewing, like painting self-portraits, is a really good habit for stretching your painterly muscles and dabbling in different color palettes and styles. And this one, proudly hanging in the studio/gallery, is really something to crow about. :)

About the art: beginning with a notanized photo of David's painting, roughing in the shapes with a chunky colored pencil and some wet brushes. Adding a layer of yellow ochre to the lower half as an underpainting and keeping a limited color palette as David did in the original. Using soft, watery washes to create shadows and highlights and resisting the urge to overly define.

Cadmium red light and a sprayer bottle used to create evidence of a murder. (I wouldn't turn my back on that rooster, though)

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Internal Dialogue

2/1/2022

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"Internal Dialogue" - acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 16 x 20 x 1.5. Ready to hang. Available here and at Artfinder.

Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.
― David Richo

I've been struggling a bit with old wounds.

Not the fact that I have them - we all do; it's part of life. They can and do still rear up like angry stallions now and again, take my breath away, punch me in the gut and leave me feeling quite vulnerable. The struggle is with my internal dialogue in those moments and afterward. The inner critic isn't a very kind person, and berates me for for having wounds. Silly, isn't she?

There is a silver lining in most everything, I think. Including those moments of facing angry stallions and corralling them into something you can approach and embrace.

Internal Dialogue

I am still searching for the "best and most beautiful part" in those wounds.

It's easy for me to see beauty in the scars of others - the strength, tenderness, tenacity, surrender - all the incredible qualities emerging from their past experiences. I'd like to transform mine into something of beauty in my own eyes, too. There is freedom in that transformation. I can almost taste it.

About the art: beginning with an inspiration photo which has been notanized, creating a value study of darks and lights with watered down acrylic paint and chunky soft pencils. Slowly adding the layers required to create depth and texture. Liberal use of water bottle, rubber wedge and paper towel.

This piece was a wrestling match - almost as if the inner critic was fighting with me in the paint. Eventually this woman emerged, victorious but perhaps needing a hot bath and a respite from struggle. Art imitates life.

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Two Possibilities

Come to Your River

A Murder Most Fowl

Internal Dialogue

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