Biography
Petals Interpreted
I have painted flowers for years. I paint them as portraits on abstract backgrounds combining my love of abstract and realist art.
I year ago I decided it was time to reinvent the way I think about florals, and to find a new way to interpret them. I began deconstructing them using art's most basic element, line. I bought stacks of paper and began drawing flowers from my garden at every angle, twisting and redrawing them again and again.
The first drawings were quick and expressive focusing on the movement, reminiscent of life drawings and quick poses. Some of these drawings are still my favorite. They are fresh and spontaneously drawn. I continued drawing every day pinning work to every wall, and soon the walls filled and my work began spilling onto the floor with just enough of a walkway to get to my easel.
Winter came and the flowers in my garden were gone. I planted tulip bulbs, amaryllis and paperwhites and waited for them to grow. I came upon the American Sign Language sign for "spirit"
This sign is made by holding your fingers together and pulling up, twisting a large spiral that opens and then closes smaller, ending with your fingers together again at the top. I found this sign very beautiful. I loved the idea of expressing such a meaningful word with a simple motion. I began recreating "spirit" on paper, with line, color and motion. My studio is now filled with papers full of this spirit.
I adopted this motion into my drawings and thinking about the spirit of the flower, spinning and moving the way the tulips in my studio slowly moved throughout the day, bending their stems and unfolding their petal in a very slow dance. I began to find this spirit elsewhere in the world. I visited the Chihuly Glass Garden in Seattle and was struck by the same spirit movement in his large scale glass chandeliers. Hanging effortlessly from the ceiling, I wanted to give them a little push and send them truly spinning, but of course, I didn't touch them!
After a few months of drawing and slowly introducing more color to the work I began to wonder
how I could translate the drawing into larger work on canvas. I began drawing on a large canvas. It is wonderful making large sweeping marks. I enjoy the way charcoal moves across the canvas recording every move large or small, but I needed more. I experimented with recipes to make large oil sticks combining melted beesewax, linseed oil and pigments. This allowed me to paint and draw at the same time.
I went to San Francisco and saw Joan Mitchell's retrospective. Seeing room after room of her large bold canvases was truly inspiring. She has such forceful and bold lines. I returned to my studio with courage to jump into painting large.
I filled January and February with tulips. I couldn't get enough of them. I loved watching their petals unfold like origami and them curl just before dropping their petals to the ground. I loved their dark black center and the deep purple pollen.
March of this year bloomed with daffodils in my front yard, which were immediately painted, as you can see in my painting, Daffodil Imprint. Summer brought peonies, poppies and dahlias. Sunflowers and petunias were soon to come. I played with color as another element of spirit. I choose to paint my beautiful pink peonies using deep blues from a trip to the ocean.
I visited Amsterdam and fell in love with the warm earth colored brick and deep black accents.My painting Fragmented Movement, reflects the colors of this beautiful city. While walking through a cathedral I looked up at the tall curved ceilings and stained glass and I thought this is what it must be like the experience of a bee inside a flower.
I used this sign language spirit shape as an armature for all of my paintings in this collection. I invite you to explore this show and find spirit's movement and the wonder of line in each of my paintings. I believe you will also find the same joy I experienced interpreting petals from a new perspective.
I share this Joy with you.
A Gallery Show New Abstracts artist statement
I see abstraction everywhere, interpreting the word around me by its shadowy depths, shapes and contours that hide in plain sight in my everyday environment. I find that shapes have their own presence; they push the space around them as they interact with each other. Therefore the nature of my painting is always fluid, rushing forward and gathering influences form the world around me. I survey these swirling currents to capture elements for my work. During my painting process, shapes and colors make connections.
I draw some lines slowly and thoughtfully, others with a quick movement capturing the speed and weight of my hand as I hold the charcoal, pastel, or brush. Drawing is not something that just happens in my hand or wrist. It is a process that happens in my mind as I respond to what I see in my environment, and reveals itself when I pick up a brush loaded with paint. I feel the weight of the brush, anticipating what marks will be made as I pour paint on the canvas and move it around with a trowel, as gravity works alongside me pulling the paint down into drips.
I am reaching for Notan, a design that embraces light and dark, in this work I have given a stronger voice to the quiet simple spaces, I find refuge in those spaces that allow my eyes to rest and my mind to clear. There is space for a small memory to come forward maybe a shadow from my travels.
Artist Statement
Painting is a conversation.
I may have an idea of what I want to say but there is a process of give and take between myself and the marks on the canvas… there are always unexpected turns.
My textural, painterly works examine ever-changing relationship in life.
I work on a body of five or more paintings at a time.
Working on these paintings together I begin with quick layers of acrylic paint, allowing me to build up texture. These first layers always show through somewhere in the finished work. They are where the conversation begins.
Next I draw with charcoal, oil pastel or pastel, these marks will not be the final drawing, there are many times during the work to draw again. Drawing is coming to shape conclusions.
My favorite part is oil paint. The rich creamy texture and luminous color begin to tell the real story. The canvas and I understand each other and are better for the conversation we have had.
Jennifer Rasmusson Biography
Education
Dundas Valley School of Art, Ontario, Canada 1996-97
Lyme Academy of Fine Art, Old Lyme, Connecticut 1995-96
Studied With George William Allen, Salt Lake, Utah 1993-95
Museum Exhibitions
2008 Spring Salon, Springville Museum of Art, Salt Lake City, Utah
2007 Spring Salon, Springville Museum of Art, Salt Lake City, Utah
2006 Art in Bloom, Utah Museum of Art, Salt Lake City, Utah
2006 Spring Salon, Springville Museum of Art, Salt Lake City, Utah
1999 Fairfield Museum of Art, Fairfield, Utah
Exhibitions
2022 Solo Show, Petals Interpreted, A Gallery Salt Lake City, Utah
2018 Solo Show, New Abstracts, A Gallery Salt Lake City, Utah
2018 Solo Show, Figures and Abstracts, Artworks, Cedar City Utah,
2011 The Color of Consciousness, DSC Sears Museum Gallery, St George, Utah
2010 Walking Feet, Jackson Hole Art Association, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
2009 Exchange, Solo Show, A Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2007 Rose Wagner Art Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2005 Solo Show, A Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2004 Gastronomy Inc. Pillar, Salt Lake City, Utah
2001 Building Abstraction, Phillips Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
1998 Artworks Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah
Associations and Committees
2007-09 Director of the Cedar City Art Committee
2006 Cedar City Arts Council, Children’s Art
2006 “Art in Elementary Schools”, North Elementary, Cedar City, Utah
Art Reviews
2018 Utah Style and Design, Spring Awakening, by Ashley Szanter
2018 Etched Magazine, June
2018 Iron County Today, Arts and Entertainment, Full page article
2010 JH Weekly, Fragment of Figures, by Matthew Irwin
2010 Jackson Hole News and Guide, Painter, Sculptor Converse About Time and Body, By Katy Niner
2006 Southwest Art Magazine, Start your collection
2005 Cedar City Review, Local Artist
Collections
Nordstrom’s, City Creek, Salt Lake City, Utah
Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah
Fairview Museum of Art, Fairview, Utah
Gastronomy Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah
Howa Construction, Salt Lake City, Utah
ATK Thiokol, Utah
Private Collections, Nationally
Gallery Representation
A Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
Catherine Kelleghan Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
E Studio Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida
Matthews Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco, California