» Visual Art

Relationships

 

My work is contemporary and figurative. Through image-making, I explore what it means to be a human being and to be part of the universal human experience, touching on relationships between people, with nature, and with the environment around us. I see myself and others in a constant cycle, always fracturing, fragmenting, and reassembling ourselves over time. All my work—both art and writing—falls somewhere on this experiential spectrum.

 

When I begin to paint, I imagine myself walking on a beam of light. I work completely intuitively and without reference to anything around me. I look at the blank canvas and simply begin to draw what I “see.” After sketching the image in pencil, I patch in color. I choose acrylic paint because it dries quickly so that I can paint out and paint over, working in a collage-like fashion. I can also use acrylics to create a stained-glass effect by hand-rubbing areas with very, very thin layers of color.

 

I know I am on the right track when I feel the presence of some energy, then come into relationship with the canvas as it begins to communicate itself to me. As I transform the original vision, the final piece emerges. I never begin a painting with an idea. The ideas come later.

 

These 9” by 12” paintings, part of a larger series titled Relationships, are the result of a special challenge I set for myself in 2019. I’d been working on much larger canvases, and I wanted to make smaller, more intimate, almost miniature works. I hoped to prove that a small painting could have as great an impact as a large one.

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Jeri Griffith

After stints in Boston and Austin, writer and artist Jeri Griffith lives and works in Brattleboro, Vermont. She has published stories and essays in several literary publications, including Aquifer: The Florida Review Online ("Logos"). Her autobiographical short film, Hunting Arrowheads with My Father, was shown in the 2020 Wisconsin Film Festival. She is currently working on a collection of essays and a collection of short stories, as well as organizing exhibitions of her art. These four paintings from her “Relationships” series were part of a two-person show held at Factory Mark Gallery in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 2019–2020.