Q: Introduce your self — who you might be and what your imaginative and prescient as an artist is?
A: Good day, my title is Jordana Rae Gassner. I’m an American summary expressionist artist dwelling in Bavaria, Germany. My artwork primarily focuses on metaphysical realism and I work virtually solely in oil paints.
The primary years of my life had been spent within the Black Hills of South Dakota the place I realized to cherish working barefoot by way of fields and mountain climbing, having fun with the boundless nature to be present in what was as soon as the Wild West. Throughout my childhood, I realized to understand artwork to a sure extent, but it surely was at all times thought of one thing that was good to have, however not a necessity. Nonetheless, I used to be at all times spending time creating one thing, whether or not it was murals and paper mâché sculptures, or collaborating within the theatrical arts.
In my early 20s, I used to be launched to acrylic paints which enabled my first foray into creating pictures on canvas with thick layers of paint, or impasto portray. For me, it was a really pivotal level in studying all work needn’t be aquarelle or youngsters’s finger paints (though I’d loved the consistency of the latter). Throughout those self same years, my research introduced me to the College of Bergen in Norway, in addition to the Universidad de las Americas in Mexico Metropolis, Mexico and Concordia Faculty in Moorhead, Minnesota the place I studied Psychology, Philosophy, Literature, and Mythology.
Round 2005, while dwelling in Seattle, I used to be taking weekend lessons on the College of Washington on easy methods to paint and “see” shade, after I found and commenced to discover the distinctive qualities of oil paints. For instance, discovering out that oil work want round 100 years to utterly oxidize as they don’t dry as one would count on was completely fascinating to me, and I needed to make use of this newfound data to create trendy works and develop my very own type. Throughout my research at Concordia Faculty, I had come throughout a sentence in a e book that I’ve sadly forgotten the title and writer of… the gist of that sentence was that artwork is made to “Glorify God (or no matter greater energy one wish to categorical as such), exemplify a mechanical method, or to carry consciousness to social injustices/plight”, and that one of the best artwork does all three. That notion has caught with me for over 25 years and is the one tenet I exploit in making a collection. I ask myself which of these three I wish to use as a basis and try for methods to include all of them.
I presently reside and work in Regensburg, Germany, and spend a lot of my time questioning easy methods to carry concepts of science and spirituality onto conventional helps similar to linen canvas.
Q: What’s your background?
A: Largely, I determine as a small-town woman from the Midwest who grew up surrounded by the imagery and tradition related to Native Individuals and cowboys. The factor is, as a baby I used to be by no means taught to view both of them as being higher than or lower than the opposite. My German-immigrant great-grandfather traded with the Native Individuals as simply as with the European settlers. It wasn’t till highschool that I started to learn in regards to the atrocities individuals who lived so near me had skilled. It breaks my coronary heart nonetheless, simply as my coronary heart breaks studying of any of the horrors of this world, driving my want for my art work to carry a way of hope and surprise to these wanting.
Q: What’s your work philosophy and the way does that influence your work?
A: I grew up in a Protestant family which implies one works exhausting, applies as a lot frequent sense as attainable, and treats others with the Golden Rule. All of that meant a respectable profession in artwork was not likely within the playing cards, or so I believed again then. Having managed to seek out academics of all types as I traveled and lived somewhere else, I’d sneak off to a quiet room to observe drawing, or my pricey husband would watch the kids whereas I went to yet one more artwork class. As of late, it’s with a lot gratitude that I not have to sneak off or carve out time to create and might as an alternative do as I’ve at all times needed; to color or draw day by day of my life. Administrative duties concerned in working a enterprise take up plenty of my week and I nonetheless do have a facet job, however typically, my weeks carry me into the studio for not less than 30 hours of portray, even when 10 of them occur in a single go on a Sunday. For me, portray is just not one thing I do, it’s what I’m, an artist painter, and which means I dedicate as a lot time as attainable to honing my abilities and conserving on the easel in persevering with to make marks in anticipation of these moments of pure circulation in creation.
Q: What artist(s) encourage you?
A: The artists I most refer again to whereas I’m selecting the format and mixing colours start with John F. Carlson as a result of although I‘d by no means met him, his e book on landscapes taught me easy methods to see bushes and perceive the ambiance. Helen Frankenthaler’s title involves thoughts as she jogs my memory that one portray in a couple of dozen will ever be any good. Oh, and Mark Carder, whose Draw Combine Paint lessons taught me to refine my shade mixing, pay sturdy consideration to worth and asking questions similar to „is that this too blue?“ and be capable to right. Although actually all artists who dedicate their lives to constantly making artwork, whether or not it’s to make a dwelling or merely be a artistic outlet, are an inspiration to me.
Q: What’s the greatest recommendation you’ve obtained?
A: “Maintain transferring.”
In different phrases, hold creating, hold exhibiting work, hold assembly folks, hold making use of for reveals, hold contacting galleries, hold asking for collaborations, hold taking time for relaxation, and re-connect with that which anchors you (for me, that barefoot strolls or swimming in icy lakes and rivers), however most of all hold loving what I’m doing, even and particularly when it’s exhausting. I hold transferring as a result of having the ability to create artwork and develop that right into a sustainable enterprise by working with artwork festivals and galleries to satisfy with collectors and artwork lovers is one very massive present that I’ll by no means take as a right.
Q: When you find yourself not working, the place can we discover you?
A: Aforementioned lakes, rivers, and the occasional park watching clouds and the wind whip round bushes.
Q: What does exhibiting at Spectrum Miami 2022 imply to you?
A: A lot actually. Redwood Artwork Group has been very gracious in supporting artists to indicate our work to a wider public. I’m actually wanting ahead to assembly everybody on the exhibition and grateful for the actual expertise in seeing art work in particular person as an alternative of being restricted to reveals through the web. It is extremely thrilling. There may be going to be plenty of alternatives to get to know new folks and hopefully create some nice initiatives going ahead. I’d like to look into exhibiting at different Redwood Artwork Group exhibitions similar to Dallas or possibly New York and it is a probability to substantiate what I already really feel to be a very good match with my artwork.
