Theartsofpamjennings

About

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Artist Statement 

The value of art is in its transformative power to shift individual perceptions of ourselves, other people and the universe for the better. In my work I strive to meet this challenge by the creation of paintings that have as their main subject chance images that look like different things to different people because they are ambiguous in nature. My images are evocative in that they often hint at people, animals, places, things or abstract ideas like feelings. The viewer responds to these suggestions with the projection of perceptions that arise from personal experience. It is as if the viewer has the opportunity to complete the painting which results in a shift in the role from gazer to creator.

 I have a taste for chance imagery in much the same way as someone has a taste for a type of food, music or wine. My sense of sight, touch, movement and sound (rhythm) are powerfully affected, an experience I want to share with others through my paintings.

I developed my tastes for chance imagery in my work as a Clinical Psychologist which involved visually scrutinizing a multitude of Rorschach inkblots to see if I could see them like others. However, my work as an artist transcends the clinical diagnostic situation as my interest is in bringing such visual phenomena to life as art.

My paintings reflect how I perceive nature to paint, something I am able to see when I look at the sky at night and read the random shapes and patterns in the heavens, her preferred canvas. The images are raw and have a certain brute force that sometimes repels me and leave me with all the anxiety and horror of having created a Frankenstein. Sometimes they trigger a spiritual response in me.

My studio practice reflects an unorthodox approach to painting. I find intentional ways to create chance images that are left behind by the evaporation of watery acrylic paint poured, sprayed, soaked into and dripped onto a variety of surfaces including 100% silk fabric. So far, my silk paintings are the highlight of my work as people find them particularly compelling.

Gravity and the drying process leave behind a host of visually fascinating special effects in my work. These include moments of transparent overlays of value and color, dramatic detail areas that require close up examination and, found color.

Bio

Artist/Psychologist/Psychoanalyst Pam Jennings was born and raised in New York City. After 26 years of teaching and practicing Psychology she decided to pursue graduate studies in the fine arts and has enrolled in the MFA program at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her doctorate from the George Washington University in 1984 and completed post doctoral studies in Psychoanalysis at the Baltimore-Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis in 1994. In 1995 Pam began drawing and oil painting with various mentors at the Art League School in Alexandria Virginia where she concentrated on the portrait and figure. She studied for a semester at MICA in the Post-Baccalaureate program in 2009.

Pam has exhibited solo at the Art League in Alexandria, Virginia, The Williams Club in New York, The Smith Farm Center for the Healing Arts, The Department of Human Services, the National Institutes of Health and the Washington Hospital Cancer Center. She has exhibited in a variety of juried group including the 2011 American Artist Professional League Grand National Exhibition in NYC and the Art Student’s League in NYC. Most often she participated in group exhibitions at the Art League Gallery in Alexandria Virginia. Pam has won several local awards including honorable mentions, equal merit awards, the Van Landingham Award, the Best of Show Award at the Yellow Barn at Glen Echo and an NIH Purchase Award