A Visit With Janet Henry
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of sitting down with my mentor-artist, Janet Olivia Henry. Janet is working with each of the cohorts during the course of our ARTworks fellowship as we work towards our final group show.
I was a little nervous to have her look at my paintings. After all, she’s pretty accomplished; she’s been making art since the 60s, has shown at major museums in New York City, was a member of the ground breaking Just Above Midtown (JAM) gallery, and is currently in the process of creating work for a show in Los Angeles. But unlike my experiences with other professional artists, who sometimes seem to take pleasure in tearing down the work of other aspiring artists, Janet was warm and generous with her feedback. She also has a wonderful, irreverent sense of humor that aligns with her body of work.
One of the things that I’ve been the most self conscious about in my practice is that I often use paint markers to create the line work that is part of my signature style. I was told recently that I shouldn’t be using that because I guess it doesn’t lend actual value to my work and I should use something like oils or some other medium and that the works should be produced on my canvas instead. I’ve always felt like these factors shouldn’t stand in the way of what should be considered valuable art.
Janet affirmed that and went even further to say that as long as the materials don’t cause the art to degrade, anything can be used. She told me about the artist Noah Jemisin, who once made a stunning work using used greasy paper bags and chicken bones. Janet herself is known for making mini installation consists of dolls, lego blocks, mini-sculptures and other types of figurines. She said that sometimes artists act too precious about the materials they use—what kind of paint do you use, whether or not you stretch your own canvases—but at the end of the day, you make what feels right to you, not to a potential collector.
Another liberating piece of advice that she gave me is that art doesn’t always have to represent something or have a deep meaning. I tend to be very cerebral about my paintings but that can sometimes be very confining. Since jumping back into abstract art, I have to remind myself that it’s okay to just focus on shapes and color without it having to mean something. When I told Janet about the story behind my Searching for Proginoskes series, she was intrigued and said that it added an interesting layer to my work but even without it, the work itself is strong. She advised me was to work bigger and hold my work up in the mirror. Looking at mirror image of your work will give you more critical perspective of what needs to be cleaned up or worked on. I used to do this when I did more representational work and sometimes that mirror can give you a fright but it doesn’t lie.
I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have spoken to such an accomplished artist. I feel less like an island and more connected to a creative continuum. I also feel freer to make mistakes and keep working while figuring out along the way while being as unconventional as I want to be. Meeting with her, exploring idea,s and visiting her studio energized me and reminded me the importance of building community with other artists. We really do need each other.
