Janet Chaffee

Website: janetchaffeestudios.com
Email: janetchaffee3@gmail.com
Instagram: @janetchaffee

Artist’s Statement

This artwork, An Abstracted Love, is an intentional expression of love and respect for the natural world, the relationships that inform my life, and the interlacement between the two. I cannot be a part of one without the other, just as I cannot engage in the verbal without the visual. Creating this work involved the process of layering materials, India Ink, charcoal, and water-soluble encaustic, along with imagery based on plant life commonly given to others articulates my interest in the history of Abstraction. This work belongs to a larger body of work where I work with geological formations that are intricately interwoven together to reveal connections found in my communities and relationships, which underpin my life. Lace, Mica, Calcium Carbonate, Beeswax, Oil Paint, Art History, Rilke's poetry, and the imagery of Site-specific rock formations such as the In-Ko-Pah mountain range and Continental Divide are metaphors for this practice. The inclusion of plant life is now integral to this conversation. Reflecting on Rilke’s poetry sharpened my conclusion that nature will always win. We are clearly a part of that nature which offers hope, but not control. My fixated exploration of plant life, geological and lived passages, interlacements, joy, new life, endings, and grief, catalyze the multiple combinations of these metaphors, resulting in an intuitive purposeful unwinding path into the discovery of an unexpected fullness in my personal and abstracted language, life, and love. The artwork, An Abstracted Love, is a part of my visual conversation and my studio practice.