Jeanette Fintz
My paintings evolve in a space between planning & chance, systems & spontaneity, conveying contradictions that I view as metaphors for maneuvering through “real “life. In this work I play a fairly high stakes game of improvisation around a motif. Using a working method akin to jazz, I counterpoint systematically repeated elliptical shapes against gestural pours & drips and something unexpected emerges. I am drawn to create complexity, and challenged to unify multiple layers through the physicality of the paint, which fuses & knits together, as well as, ultimately, through the power of color to stabilize & resolve.
The ellipse, which is hypnotic & spatial in repetition, & monumental, but not static as a shape unto itself, embodies references to nature and to the decorative arts which are both alluded to in the paintings. (The egg, the mirror, the vulva, or the shield.)
Dynamic visual rhythms, in these pieces, the momentum of the repetitive ellipse, are typical of my work and help to maintain order within complexity. Their sources for me are both musical, notably the poly-rhythms of Latin jazz, Brazilian & East Indian music, and are also derived from the decorative arts, particularly textiles. The latter have been a source of excitement, often contributing a playful aspect to the paintings. I intentionally disturb the regularity of pattern, encouraging discordance & uniqueness, and then bring it back home after finding another by – way to work things through.
Color is my most intuitive source of inspiration, connecting me to nature; It is also, ironically, my most passionately calculated element. In the primal struggle among sometimes apparently random components, subtlely modulated color clarifies purpose, builds context, and holds the structure together.