Janine Etherington
Eugene, Oregon
Janine’s abstract artworks are created with measured doses of both intuition and analysis. “My work develops as a series of calls and responses,” she says. She adds color, letting gravity pull the paint around. She then responds to the direction of the composition with additional marks, adding and subtracting. The incorporation of recognizable forms, specifically letters and numbers, indicates the influences of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg on Janine’s work. Janine is also inspired by listening to jazz music. She is a musician herself, and plays in a local Zimbabwean marimba ensemble when she’s not painting.
Artist Statement
Over the years I’ve shifted from developing images focussed on a preconceived idea or subject to focussing more on the process of painting itself and allowing images to emerge. For me this process is one of simultaneous observation and participation, adding and subtracting, layering and peeling away, approaching and retreating. Often, before I start painting, it feels as though the image, although unknown to me at the outset, is somehow already there. Not unlike an archeological dig, my job is to show up to participate in its reveal.
Symbols and icons are strong touchstones for me. I'm captivated by our ability to decode letter forms into words and ideas. How is it that we make the leap from symbol to word, from word to idea and collectively understand?
There isn't much that is more pleasing to me than painting in my studio, immersing myself in the sound of some glorious jazz. Thrown into a creative trance, the world's chaos falling away, I feel as though I've stepped outside of time. Jazz joy abounds and under the music's influence, my work takes directions I can't anticipate. In certain paintings I let the music play a central role, and it becomes the subject.
I primarily work with acrylics and mixed media, often on wood panels or canvas. My artistic influences include luminaries such as Paul Klee, Robert Rauschenberg, George Sen Morillo, Tony Smith, and Helen Frankenthaler.
Symbols and icons are strong touchstones for me. I'm captivated by our ability to decode letter forms into words and ideas. How is it that we make the leap from symbol to word, from word to idea and collectively understand?
There isn't much that is more pleasing to me than painting in my studio, immersing myself in the sound of some glorious jazz. Thrown into a creative trance, the world's chaos falling away, I feel as though I've stepped outside of time. Jazz joy abounds and under the music's influence, my work takes directions I can't anticipate. In certain paintings I let the music play a central role, and it becomes the subject.
I primarily work with acrylics and mixed media, often on wood panels or canvas. My artistic influences include luminaries such as Paul Klee, Robert Rauschenberg, George Sen Morillo, Tony Smith, and Helen Frankenthaler.
Artist Background
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1984
Alberta College for Art and Design