Inside: Interview with Jenna North
I have often been interested in hybrids, how two things come together to form something new. One favorite is how sound is mixed with visuals. Even better is visuals generated by sounds. The latest Inside Interview is with artist Jenna North. She has a new series of paintings based on the work of Ernst Chladni (1756-1827), who laid the foundations for visualizing sound and advancing the science of acoustics. Chladni´s ingenious experiments provided a means of transposing sound into a visual experience.
"To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in."
-Richard P. Feynman
MS: What's your work all about, what's your process?
JN: My art is essentially conceptually based on the history of ornament and design, and I'm interested in the notion of how the metamorphosis of aesthetics is driven, and how art both follows and leads the course of popular culture and communication. Art invents its own language, and the intersection of how that is perceived by the public eye and how society affects the artists' course seems to define creative invention. Through a process that involves revealing latent geometries, my work explores the region between Art, Science, and Nature. Through symmetry I experience a heightened awareness of natural mysteries and the science of beauty. This process has allowed me to survey many periods, like a time traveler surfing the epochs of visual history.
MS: Are there any stories you are trying to tell?
JN: The current work has no intended narrative; rather the grey-tones are actual depictions of a natural phenomenon. The paintings are visual representations of the principals of Cymatics; the study of shapes and patterns created by sound vibrations.
MS: Why grey?
JN: Purity. Color and all of its associations is an enormous can of worms that I’m not yet ready to enter into this work. I want the viewer to immerse in the phenomenon, and the pattern and SHAPE formations.
MS: Have you ever tried to paint by sound? To let the music drive your brush strokes, composition and final work?
JN: Yes. Music has always been an important tool for my art. Ironically, although the grey-tones are conceptually and fundamentally based on harmonics, it wasn’t until I started working on these that I didn’t feel the superstitious need to have the perfect music to set the working mode.
MS: What kind of music do you like? What are you listening to right now?
JN: This question reminds me of Myspace, and is much too long to answer. What I am listening to right now…. Well it’s spring, and love is in the air, so the last couple of days it’s been the Beatles Anthology on my new ipod. This is the six disk set; lot’s of rough and goofy studio recording gems and failures. I’ve been listening while working on a couple of new paintings. I love the process element of this set.
MS: What other artists have inspired you?
JN: I love art history, but I love the history of design, and studying the natural world just as much. The artists that I am in the closest contact with are usually the ones that inspire me the most, ie. previous teachers, fellow studio artists/partners and my main man Mr. C.
Oh, but really one of the most inspiring visual artists is Lee Bontecue.
MS: How did you get into shapes?
JN: Shapes, they're everything! I would say my experience in the first two years of art school at the Munson Williams Proctor Institute is what brought me in tuned to shapes as fundamental elements in art. In both 2-D and color theory, there was quite a bit of emphasis on shapes. When speaking of a composition it is near impossible not to use shapes in a descriptive sense.
MS: Is there anythinig else you would like to add?
JN: This past winter I applied to grad schools, and apparently the timing was on. I’ve just decided to accept an offer to study at the San Francisco Art Institute where I am the full fellowship recipient for the MFA painting department. This should be a very exciting time for the work as the possibilities are gargantuan!
MS: Lastly, what's your favorite shape?
JN: Diamonds are forever, but flying saucers are aerodynamic, and dingbats of course!
Tags: art, shapes
"To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in."
-Richard P. Feynman
MS: What's your work all about, what's your process?
JN: My art is essentially conceptually based on the history of ornament and design, and I'm interested in the notion of how the metamorphosis of aesthetics is driven, and how art both follows and leads the course of popular culture and communication. Art invents its own language, and the intersection of how that is perceived by the public eye and how society affects the artists' course seems to define creative invention. Through a process that involves revealing latent geometries, my work explores the region between Art, Science, and Nature. Through symmetry I experience a heightened awareness of natural mysteries and the science of beauty. This process has allowed me to survey many periods, like a time traveler surfing the epochs of visual history.
MS: Are there any stories you are trying to tell?
JN: The current work has no intended narrative; rather the grey-tones are actual depictions of a natural phenomenon. The paintings are visual representations of the principals of Cymatics; the study of shapes and patterns created by sound vibrations.
MS: Why grey?
JN: Purity. Color and all of its associations is an enormous can of worms that I’m not yet ready to enter into this work. I want the viewer to immerse in the phenomenon, and the pattern and SHAPE formations.
MS: Have you ever tried to paint by sound? To let the music drive your brush strokes, composition and final work?
JN: Yes. Music has always been an important tool for my art. Ironically, although the grey-tones are conceptually and fundamentally based on harmonics, it wasn’t until I started working on these that I didn’t feel the superstitious need to have the perfect music to set the working mode.
MS: What kind of music do you like? What are you listening to right now?
JN: This question reminds me of Myspace, and is much too long to answer. What I am listening to right now…. Well it’s spring, and love is in the air, so the last couple of days it’s been the Beatles Anthology on my new ipod. This is the six disk set; lot’s of rough and goofy studio recording gems and failures. I’ve been listening while working on a couple of new paintings. I love the process element of this set.
MS: What other artists have inspired you?
JN: I love art history, but I love the history of design, and studying the natural world just as much. The artists that I am in the closest contact with are usually the ones that inspire me the most, ie. previous teachers, fellow studio artists/partners and my main man Mr. C.
Oh, but really one of the most inspiring visual artists is Lee Bontecue.
MS: How did you get into shapes?
JN: Shapes, they're everything! I would say my experience in the first two years of art school at the Munson Williams Proctor Institute is what brought me in tuned to shapes as fundamental elements in art. In both 2-D and color theory, there was quite a bit of emphasis on shapes. When speaking of a composition it is near impossible not to use shapes in a descriptive sense.
MS: Is there anythinig else you would like to add?
JN: This past winter I applied to grad schools, and apparently the timing was on. I’ve just decided to accept an offer to study at the San Francisco Art Institute where I am the full fellowship recipient for the MFA painting department. This should be a very exciting time for the work as the possibilities are gargantuan!
MS: Lastly, what's your favorite shape?
JN: Diamonds are forever, but flying saucers are aerodynamic, and dingbats of course!
Tags: art, shapes
posted by Ward at 12:00 AM
3 Comments:
Nice interview & a very good read!
Thanks Tomas, should be fun to see what Jenna does in SF.
Thanks for this interview. I just saw a couple of her paintings at Micaela Gallery in San Francisco. I was basically blown away!
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