Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Balkan.
Jennifer, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I drew all my life but didn’t know I’d be an artist until I was about 30. As a child in elementary school in New Jersey, I spent more time illustrating my book report covers than writing the reports. Nonetheless, I didn’t pursue art until after I completed graduate school in sociology. As an undergraduate, I studied behavioral neuroscience which truly informs what and how I paint. This led me to jobs working with some of our less visible population, the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. Later, in graduate school, my dissertation research involved living in southern Mexico and working in two Mayan villages where I got to know people and culture so different from any I had ever known. After graduation, I backpacked through Spain, France and Italy and saw museum masterpieces up close that I had only ever seen in books.
I was incredibly inspired and registered for my first painting class that I would take upon returning home. When I returned to Austin, I crunched numbers during the day and painted at night. I became so impassioned with painting, there was nothing I’d rather do. I soon got a part time job working in an infant cognition lab and threw the rest of my time into painting. I took classes and frequented life drawing sessions. I consumed books on painting while painting as much as possible. I spent a month at the Art Students’ League in Denver where I got to fill my days with drawing and painting classes taught by contemporary masters. When I returned home, I was invited to teach life drawing at the Sculpture Academy of Austin. I was also offered a solo show at a local gallery. My life as an artist had truly begun.
Since then, I’ve shown my work through the U.S. and beyond. I’ve been teaching regularly since 2006. And most recently, I cofounded with three other artists a realist art academy here in Austin, Texas called Atelier Dojo Austin. Oh, and somewhere in that story, I married my husband Jeff and nine years later, gave birth to my dear boy Karlo. And we three live happily with our first born, Archie Dog.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My oil paintings are emotionally-based psychological narratives where the details lie in planes of color. I choose to exaggerate color, in a sense break up a color field into its constituent colors, directing the viewer to particular areas by applying juicy bits of heavily saturated color. I strive to capture emotional states more than anything else, purposefully laying strokes down to create the illusion of an outer physical topography that houses an inner one of the souls. Though it is a cerebral concept that motivates me, the process of painting is superior to all else. Once I begin a painting, my interaction with the panel takes on a life of its own; it transcends whatever I can actually say about the painting once it is finished. Like some kind of meditation, I always hope to remain in this state during the entirety of my painting experience though life’s chatter gets in the way at times. When I can exist in that sweet place for much of the time when I am painting, I can say that my work is honest.
How can artists connect with other artists?
I initially met my art pals in life drawing sessions, a great way to meet other artists who like to do what you do. Come to think of it, I met two of my best art buds and friends there!. Of course, it’s much easier these days to connect with other artists through social media…but that isn’t touchy/feely like real life connection.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can find my work at my website: www.jenniferbalkan.net
or through Instagram: www.instagram.com/jenniferbalkan/
or through Facebook: www.facebook.com/Jennifer-Balkan-Art
Upcoming exhibition: “The Human Condition” curated by Steven DaLuz and PoetsArtists at AnArte Gallery in San Antonio, Texas in November. Atelier Dojo Austin Faculty Exhibition at Georgetown Art Center in Georgetown, Texas in January 2019 or at the Chimera Gallery in Mullingar, Ireland where I will be having a solo show in summer of 2019! http://chimera-gallery.com/.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3109 Lafayette Avenue, Austin, Texas
- Website: www.jenniferbalkan.net
- Phone: 512-796-4842
- Email: jenniferbalkan@grandecom.net
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/jenniferbalkan/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Jennifer-Balkan-Art
- Other: www.atelierdojo.com
Image Credit:
I took all the images myself.
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