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Jennifer Balkan

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Painting is anything but a silent medium for me. The psychological impact that a painted canvas has on me invokes an internal dialogue. One of my missions as an artist is to create the illusion of dynamic three-dimensionality on a static two-dimensional surface. I try to interplay color and brushwork in order to generate vibrancy that almost moves on the page.

I like to not only create a story out of content but to use my paint & brush strokes to create an overall feeling of movement. My main character may be the one who is the focal point, the one in motion, but her environment is as significant as she is in creating that feeling. She is a part of her atmosphere. I like to inspire the feeling of all matter and particles organic or not to be interacting on the canvas---continually bumping into one another like subatomic particles. My vision as a painter is to combine technique and visual narrative to create the illusion that the story on the page is alive, that it vibrates.

These days I find myself moving more into the surreal. I am intrigued with transferring psychological imagery to the canvas, that which is brought on by social pressures. My paintings lately reflect a solitude, a feeling of isolation where one begins to think her thoughts are distinct and bizarre and wonders if there is anyone else that can relate to these thoughts -- I hear this is the curse of the human condition.