My work is an exploration into the inner experience of time, fleeting moments of perception, and reflections of the natural world. Rhythmic, atmospheric, and organic in nature, my paintings rest in the pause between movement and stillness, emergence and dissolution, where time may unfold slowly through subtle interplays of color and shifting light.

Painting involves discerning the balance between exercising control while finding freedom in letting go of preconceptions. The repetitive rhythms of brushstrokes become a meditation, quieting the mind and allowing me to step out of the way so that intuition and chance may be the guide. Time is an important element in my work, as each painting is slowly built up of many thin transparent glazes that eventually create deeply saturated color, luminosity and an expanded sense of space.

While embodying a symbolic relationship to the natural world, my paintings intend to remain ambivalent in their reference to a particular time, place, or relationship to gravity, allowing them to encourage the contemplative experience of personal resonance, recollection, or familiarity.

Jenn Shifflet