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My paintings evolve in a space between
planning & chance, systems & spontaneity, conveying
contradictions that I view as metaphors for maneuvering through “real
“life. In this work I play a fairly high stakes game of improvisation
around a motif. Using a working method akin to jazz, I counterpoint
systematically repeated elliptical shapes against gestural pours &
drips and something unexpected emerges. I am drawn to create
complexity, and challenged to unify multiple layers through the
physicality of the paint, which fuses & knits together, as well as,
ultimately, through the power of color to stabilize & resolve.
The ellipse, which is hypnotic & spatial in repetition, &
monumental, but not static as a shape unto itself, embodies references
to nature and to the decorative arts which are both alluded to in the
paintings. (The egg, the mirror, the vulva, or the shield.)
Dynamic visual rhythms, in these pieces, the momentum of the repetitive
ellipse, are typical of my work and help to maintain order within
complexity. Their sources for me are both musical, notably the
poly-rhythms of Latin jazz, Brazilian & East Indian music, and are
also derived from the decorative arts, particularly textiles. The
latter have been a source of excitement, often contributing a playful
aspect to the paintings. I intentionally disturb the regularity of
pattern, encouraging discordance & uniqueness, and then bring it
back home after finding another by - way to work things through.
Color is my most intuitive source of inspiration, connecting me to
nature; It is also, ironically, my most passionately calculated
element. In the primal struggle among sometimes apparently random
components, subtlely modulated color clarifies purpose, builds context,
and holds the structure together.
Jeanette Fintz
January 2005
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