Honoring the Artist: Jen Brown

This week’s cover artist, Jen Brown, is the kind of person who knows what she wants and is willing to do what it takes to accomplish her goals. She describes this predisposition as being “adventuresome.” We’d call it “having it together.”

Hearing Ms. Brown describe her artistic intentions puts the listener in the realm of metaphysics: her explanation of reality vs. illusion and clarity vs. ambiguity recalls philosophical ideas that are not only intellectually engaging but provide a different slant on what most artists talk about.

Here’s some of the conversation that took place, giving us a distinct view of Ms. Brown and her art.

Q: The cover is part of your “Clothesline Series.” Tell us what’s going on in this work.

A: I’m investigating the difference between clarity and ambiguity. The tree is clear, stable, the clothes are moving in the wind, which is ambiguous. In life, clarity is what I am. But the world is always moving. It’s unpredictable, ambiguous.

Q: What formal qualities in the series are most important?

A: I focus on color and was very influenced by Hans Hoffman.

Q: How does this penchant for color work in your series?

A: I go out and pick clothes for their colors. Some are mine, some are my friends.

Q: How about in your personal life? How important is color?

A: I wear bright colors in the summer especially: turquoise, oranges. And the house. It’s painted in colors like the Caribbean. Yet my kitchen has eight different colors, like Naples, Italy. The house’s interior trim is butter yellow; the doors are violet black.

Q: You have a special affinity for your house?

A: Yes. It was my grandmother’s. I would come here to visit as a child. She was an artist, and I remember her taking us for walks, doing adventurous things.

Q: That’s where you got your adventurous spirit, I bet.

A: Perhaps.

Q: I’m assuming that some of your past work has been narrative while the current series you describe as still lifes.

A: Yes. I did a narrative series about whaling for the Sag Harbor Historical Society. I did extensive research; reading the diaries of the sea captains and their wives, for example. My favorite in the series was called “The Mutiny” and was inspired by paintings of battle scenes in the Renaissance Period.

Q: You did a lot of research for your series. How important was your art training regarding that?

A: I studied at a variety of schools, including the New York Studio School and part-time for thirteen years at the School of Visual Arts and the New York Academy of Art. I especially learned the discipline of painting eight hours a day at the New York Studio School. I learned a work ethic and to create in a variety of media. I learned to take art seriously.

Q: You certainly did. One thing you take seriously is reality vs. illusion, your view of what you see.

A: I see things on a flat plane. The ultimate truth is flatness. The illusion of space is the opposite of the truth of the picture plane. I don’t want to walk into my picture. I want to wake up and not know there’s deep space.

– Marion Wolberg Weiss