Fridays & Friends #5 – Jenny G

It’s already March!  I can already see the little buds on the trees outside my apartment, and I must admit, I’m really looking forward to spring.

It was just under a year ago that I met this month’s Friday & Friend’s artist, Jenny G.  It was friendship at first sight (swoon).  I proudly tell people that meeting her was the best thing that happened to me on that trip out to Montreal – because it’s true.  Here is the one and only, brilliant, Jenny G.

*****

Jenny G – Installation view from the series The Last Day of Summer Forever, from the exhibition Alternorthern, The Lab, San Francisco, 2010

Roselina Hung: How did we first meet?

Jenny G: I was riding my bike and you were in a cab, through the glass our eyes met in Montreal, 2011.

Jenny G – UNTITLED, Mixed media on paper mounted on aluminum, 36” x 48", 2011

RH: Tell me a bit about yourself…

JG: I’m from Vancouver. Lived in Montreal where I graduated from Concordia University in ’08, lived in San Francisco, and am back living in Vancouver yet again.

Jenny G – UNTITLED, Mixed media on paper mounted on aluminum, ~55" x 40", 2011

RH: Tell me about your work…

JG: I like to work on paper. Not only does it allow for direct contact, but it holds up to aggressive mark making. It’s easy to cut or add more surface quickly, so there’s a sense of spontaneity that melds well with my process. All my work is on some sort of paper, and I use a wide range of mediums on top of that; oil paint, oil stick, pastels, acrylic paint, spray paint, ink, graphite, charcoal.

Each project is a physical record of my conversation within the subject of bridging abstract ideas and lived ones. It’s like when you’re a kid, there’s no difference between the things you imagine and the things you experience; and when you’re older, there’s always an explanation for ideas and their actions. In my practice, I explore the area between these two opposing processes: intuitive thought and critical thought. I guess that’s why my work seemingly hovers in the tense space between abstraction and representation. Each piece begins where the last one left off and progresses in a ‘one foot in front of the next’ manner. To start, I approach the formal and conceptual problems of my past pieces by working. What was successful? And most importantly, what was not? I’m always looking for that area which is not comfortable for me to work, and use my baggage of formal tools to unpack and reorganize the picture plane.

Jenny G – RED AND GREEN 1, Digital c-print on Fujiflex Crystal Archive, 16” x 14”, 2011

RH: What are you currently working on?

JG: My newest project involves working uniquely on a tablet in Photoshop, and then printing them out as digital c-prints, on Fujiflex Crystal Archive. It’s exciting for me to start thinking about the process of working large scale in the physical world and living through the process, versus creating within the perimeter of a tablet and not seeing the final product until it’s done. Both are good.

RH: Where can people find your work?

JG: On my website www.gjennyg.com, and I’ve started to keep a record of things I like on my Tumblr.

Jenny G – UNTITLED, Oil paint on paper mounted on aluminum, 22” x 30”, 2010

RH: Tell me one fun fact about yourself.

JG: My childhood celebrity crush was Steve Buscemi.

Thank you, Jenny!  And Steve Buscemi really is the bee’s knees.  He completely trumps my multitude of childhood celebrity crushes any day of the week.

Please visit www.gjennyg.com to view more of Jenny’s work.

Read past Fridays & Friends posts here.