Paintings of France, Italy and Beyond

How it all began

14 09 2006

From time to time I get asked the question, “When did you know you wanted to become an artist?” My answer is always the same. 1st grade.

I remember the moment of that decision too, believe it or not. Our class was assigned a project of deciding what we wanted to be when we grew up. Once we figured that out, we were to create a presentation about it. We could use magazine pictures, crayons, paste, and writing. Well, at six years old, I hadn’t quite had my lifetime career figured out just yet, but I set to work nonetheless.

Flipping through the magazines I found a picture of a pretty lady dressed up as a nurse. So I cut her out and pasted her on my construction paper. Then around her I drew a hosipital with trees, massive butterflies, flowers, etc. In my best print I wrote, “I want to be a nurse”.

When it came time to present my project to the class, I stood up there and held up my picture. My fellow students began oooh-ing and ahhh-ing. I hadn’t really thought much of my project beyond the fact that I had loads of fun making it. But in that moment of appreciation from others I thought, hey, maybe I’m onto something here?

So my first desires about becoming an artist were based on the appreciation I received from others. But as the years have gone on, I have come to realize that while that kind of appreciation feels really wonderful, it is temporary if I am not at the same time appreciating my own experience as an artist. If you aren’t letting yourself be guided by your own internal compass, you kind of feel like a leaf blowing around in the wind.

The art school that I attended has been consistently ranked among the top 10 or so art schools in the country. It is a great school and I learned a lot, but the painting department leaned more towards abstract expressionism, pop, and conceptual paintings. It was not the place for me to freely explore my colorful landscapes. At least, rightly or wrongly that was my perception at the time. Looking back now I am glad that I was exposed to the variety artforms and styles. But it wasn’t until I got out of school that I felt free to explore what would have been considered more traditional genres like landscape painting.

I am really enjoying landscape painting and I still get excited about learning new ways of seeing and executing that vision. And yet lately I have also started to get really excited about exploring abstractions too, without having any idea if it will lead anywhere at all. I am loving exploring both! It feels just as fun as when I was six drawing gigantic butterflies and flowers, and that feels like a pretty good vibe to me!

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And now for something completely different

5 09 2006

A while back I posted about experimenting with non-objective work, so I thought I’d share the results here. I’m not sure what you’d call this configuration of canvases…an installation? In any event, I installed this piece in my living room this weekend during the power outage, and even without electricity it brightened up the place. This is my first abstract in quite a while:

abstract painting by Jennifer Young

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As an artist exploration and experimentation is very important to me. On the surface this doesn’t seem to have much relationship to my landscape paintings, but there is something to learn here, and perhaps at some point these experiments can also help me to grow with my landscapes as well. In any event, it was fun, fun, fun! Installed, this work is pretty large, measuring about 39″ across by 40″ tall. The small canvases to the side may not be quite to scale, so I will try to photograph the whole thing installed in the room and post it here when I do.

Here it is in the room:

abstract painting