Jennifer Kramer
Artist Statement
10/2/03
My paintings are about pain and beauty,
bad and good, deterioration and growth. I believe that any one of these positive
qualities cannot survive without its negative. They are not separate entities,
but rather necessary opposites that overlap and invade each other’s existences.
My paintings illustrate this coexistence. Through carving into the painted surface,
I have tried to create a sense that the painting itself is deteriorating; just
as our emotional and spiritual lives sometimes feel like they are on the verge
of falling apart, or wasting away, due to the necessary turmoil of everyday
life.
On a personal level, my work is about
people and relationships. I pray for people when I paint, and the art provides
an outlet for emotion that cannot be expressed through verbal or written prayer.
I am baffled by the fragility of human life, the idea that one experience or
one relationship can provide a turning point into a downward spiral of self-destruction.
These thoughts consume my prayer, and therefore consume my creative process.
My work has been influenced by the paintings of Robert Motherwell and Joan Mitchell. I enjoy the simple arrangement of forms in both these artist’s works. I also identify with Mitchell’s loose references to nature because landscapes and natural forms provide much of the inspiration for my compositons and shapes. I am also interested in the textured surfaces of artists such as Cy Twombly, Richard Diebenkorn, and Jean Dubuffet. I work on pieces of plywood in order to achieve my textured surfaces. The pieces range in size from 2 by 3 feet to 4 by 5 feet. In the future I would like to further explore natural subject matter, using nature as more of a basis for my painted forms.