JENNIE WEST

MULTIDISCIPLINARY | BRONX, NEW YORK

HOUSE OF THEODORA CHATS TO ARTIST JENNIE WEST

Jennie West is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Her history is as vibrant as her art, having worked in theatre, film, costume design and the music industry. Following a 20-year hiatus, Jennie rediscovered her roots in painting, using her brush to explore love, spirituality, boundaries and freedom.

Read our interview with Jennie below.

How would you describe your art?

It’s layered, full of color, poetry, harmony, dissonance, emotion, imagination, instinct, ingenuity, and vulnerability. My art is a detailed analysis and record of my very existence. Each discipline I practice has a purpose in my daily life. Each medium expands my ability to communicate authentically. It's a contribution of my viewpoint to the collective.

Meditation seems to play a large role in the formulation of your work. Can you walk us through your artistic process?

I usually say I have a meditative process because I’m not using a religious or scientific meditation technique. Still, I am pulling imagery from an internal source combined with inspiration from studying topics I’m interested in — artists’ lives, philosophy, psychology, spirituality, relationships, sex, and science.

I tend to work very organically, in the moment. That’s something I developed in my training as an actor. In my abstract work, I wanted to apply emotional performance to making visual art. I began developing my technique, Blind Contour of The Mind, initially combining the process of blind contour drawing to pictures generated in my mind's eye from emotional content. As I developed the method, I learned about the visual system and the fact that our brains have symbols for all the things we see, and I like to think I’m tapping into those symbols directly. 

When I enter my studio, I start with generally shaking off the world by journaling. Next, I do a small warm-up painting or drawing. Then I read something related to my current project and take a nap or rest for a while. When I’m ready, my eyes have been closed long enough that I’m sure no external impressions are lingering, and I focus on my mind's eye until I have a clear picture I can trace. That’s one of the ways I work. When I open my eyes after drawing, I see more realistic images in the linework that I can model into things we can identify: an animal, a face, or a familiar object. I like to interpret the images and symbols like I would a dream.

You talk about being an emotional person and that you work on conveying your emotions in a way that’s palatable. Why the need to tone it down? Why do we find emotions so confronting?

I’m a sensitive person. I cry easily. In my life experience, being in the arts felt like the only place where all of those sensitivities were a good thing, and I could feel valued for my differences. Emotions are confronting because they are revealing and powerful. They are persuasive, moving energy, and arousing responses. They can have an intense purpose if you can direct them. I think it’s not so much about toning it down but more about understanding the power in emotion and finding balance.

You have an impressive biography. When you think about your journey so far, what are some of the experiences that have most challenged your thinking?

Probably the things that aren’t in my bio. Like the culture shock of moving to New York City from Independence, Missouri. Being on my own at 18 years old and living in different communities throughout the city. Giving birth to my son and making some of the same mistakes my mother made and not getting the life I thought I wanted. My life is turning out completely different than I ever imagined it would be. I guess the roadblocks have been the most important in challenging my thinking.  

You created a series where you took 9 famous male painters and created their female alter egos. Painting as these alter egos seemed to give you a certain freedom – as you put it, they could have their vaginas out in full view and essentially ‘do whatever the fuck they want’. What constraints do you feel as a woman?

As a whole, the project is titled Self,i.e., Group Show. I haven’t gotten past the first 3 Alter egos so far. It was the second project I formulated after a 20-year break from painting. The way I work has grown and sprouted off in different directions from the process. So who knows if I will complete all 9 I had initially set out to do. It may not be necessary. I'm thinking of a modified conclusion to the project. My self-esteem was through the floor when I thought of the idea. I had left an abusive marriage a year before I began painting again, and putting on a persona related to maleness made me feel I had more power, more right to be seen or heard. I’m growing and learning so much as a person through my work that I’ve started to feel the binary premise of the project is too limiting and not representative of human reality.

As a woman, I often feel the constraints of culturally ingrained thinking. I was raised as a Christian in the midwest, and although I deeply appreciate the values of hard work, honesty, and selfless love in that part of my history, I feel constrained by fear and shame for other parts of my identity. There’s so much unlearning to do as I gain the confidence to live more fully in self-acceptance. Then there are other people, institutions, history, and constant reminders that I’ll need to work harder because there’s less opportunity. At the same time, life has a way of working out. So I try not to be discouraged by those constraints. I look for freedom within the boundaries by turning inward through creativity. The reality is I CAN do whatever the fuck I want just as I am. The project was an aid to my journey in self-liberation.

What do you find most rewarding or joyful about being a woman in the arts?

I don’t know if anything is rewarding, specifically related to being a woman in the arts. As a human in the arts, the greatest reward is the artist’s life. I share the joy of living with other artists, creating, exploring, learning, and striving to put something good into the world to inspire growth and change.

Sharing our deepest and most traumatic moments with the world can be incredibly confronting but it’s not something you shy away from. In that same alter ego series you created a piece called ‘Poverty of Love’. Can you tell us about that and the effect that it’s had on processing trauma?

I totally shy away from it, but it's part of my job as an artist. For that picture, I was studying Francis Bacon. He was working in a time when photography was causing people to question the purpose of painting. He felt painting should confront you with the emotions of the artist. I tried to get into the artist’s mind to create the alter ego more than spending a lot of time looking at their work. While Bacon had rumors surrounding violent experiences in his life, and we see it in the work, he was intensely private and never spoke of his experiences. He denied the relationship of violence to his work.*

Painting Poverty of Love gave me a safe space to start expressing the thoughts and feelings to begin healing. I’ve only completed two paintings in that series. I still have more to face. Therapy helps with that too. It’s good to have a therapist I can work with as I go deeper into my creative exploration. The work exposes all kinds of things.

What does pleasure mean to you?

For me, pleasure is learning new things, exploring, making mistakes, and going deeper into my authenticity.

What are you currently working on?

My sanity, seducing a lover, and a new painting series that I’m still formulating to transform my muses into icons.

If you could dine with 5 people – living or passed – who would they be?

Frederick Douglass, Carl Jung, Francoise Gilot, Billie Holiday, and David Bowie.

*my primary reference regarding Francis Bacon is the biography titled Francis Bacon in Your Blood by Michael Peppiatt (a close friend of his).

Location: Bronx, New York

Email: jennie@jenniewest.work

Type of art: painting, multidisciplinary

Preferred mediums: oil paint

Other design products: hand-painted clothing, crocheted textile

Size range: 3x5Inches to 5x5ft

Price range (USD): $200 - $7,500 in general, Pictured works $2,500 - $7,500

Commissions: yes

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