The first few days we will feature Janet's paintings and include her interview questions. On day 5 Cheryl has shared with you a short story and day 6 will be her interview questions. Interview questions this week come from Suzanne Savickas (Editor & Founder of Le Pink Elephant Press & Co-Editor & Founder of A Trunk of Delirium) and myself.
Welcome to *Mnemosyne*, Janet & Cheryl!
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BIOs
self portrait with blue lips © Janet Snell
Janet Snell is a graduate, magna-cum-laude, of the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she studied painting with the late Ed Dugmore. She has shown her work in venues such as The Drawing Center in New York City, Strathmore Hall in DC, Asterisk Gallery in Cleveland, and Summit Art Space in her hometown of Akron. Snell is the author of FLYTRAP (Cleveland State University Press Poetry Center) and the e-book HEADS (March Street Press). She has co-authored three other poetry and art collections with her sister Cheryl: MULTIVERSE (MiPO), PRISONER’S DILEMMA (Lopside Press) and MEMENTO MORI (Scattered Light Publications).
portrait of Cheryl © Janet Snell
Cheryl Snell’s books include two novels, Shiva’s Arms and Rescuing Ranu, as well as six collections of poetry: Flower Half Blown (Finishing Line Press), Epithalamion (Little Poem Press), Samsara (Pudding House), Multiverse (GOSS 183), Memento Mori(Scattered Light Publications),and the award-winning Prisoner’s Dilemma (Lopside Press). She is a three time Pushcart nominee, and her work was chosen by Dorianne Laux for inclusion in Sundress’ Best of the Net Anthology last year. With her sister Janet, she runs Scattered Light Publications, a micro press.
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his heart blooms for her © Janet Snell
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Janet's Day 1 Q&A
Q:
Who are your favorite musicians and how do they influence your paintings? How does music influence your art?
A:
Hendrix, Dylan, and Tom Waits are some of my favorites. I listen to music every day, and sometimes I get an image in my head while listening. I do a thumbnail sketch of the image and think about it, about its psychology. Then I have to find the right space to put the image in. That’s where process comes in. The touch of the brush leads in an intuitive manner to develop the space. My portrait of Hendrix looks the way the music sounds to me.
Q:
When did you start painting?
A:
As a child I drew all the time. My mother, also an artist, tells me I used perspective at the age of five. By the time I was ready for college, I had to choose between anthropology and art. No regrets.
Q:
How do you pick your subjects for portraits - what inspires you to paint portraits vs abstracts etc...?
A:
Whenever I see an interesting face, I want to paint it. In my portraits, I use color freely to express the subject’s personality (i.e. yellow for intelligence, violet for moodiness) while the facial features remain realistic. The portraits are semi-expressionistic. They are only semi-expressionistic because I still stick to the realism of the subject’s facial features. Thus the portraits are related to my other work.
Q:
What keeps you motivated to paint? What drives your passion for art?
A:
Work begets work.
Posts
Very interesting, Janet - the semi-expressionism. I love your work.
ReplyDeletexo
N.
Very cool! Work begets work indeed.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this and am looking forward to the coming week....
At first, I was going to remark on the faces...as expressions of spirit. Then, I thought about strictly formal aspects of composition. But the colors kept intruding. They hit me with a symbolic force. So, that's the way I'll go.
ReplyDeleteIn "self portrait with blue lips," the half-arc of blue/purple seems to be a spiritual wrapping and framing of the human, with a mysterious provenance weighing in against the purely biological. The ghastly pale neck and collarbone area convey, to me, the pathos of mortality. The shoulder red holds edgy time and memory. So -- color as representative of being-states. And I would say Janet is somewhat haunted by existence.
In "portrait of Cheryl," the colors are more muted. The face holds our attention, with its areas of blue-white, ocher, lavender, and mauve-rose. Cheryl, via these colors, is less haunted; rather, she is the one doing the haunting -- she is intrepid and her will shall make its case, and its mark.
"his heart blooms for her" -- this has "German" written all over it. And Berlin. And Kurt Weill. A complex cabaret of meaning through gesture. Of emotion rupturing from a dead, washed-out nihilistic background.
The artist has my permission to laugh hysterically at my blathering above. :)
The faces seem to bleed thru the riot of color. Nice...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nanette, John, and Kevin. And Tim, I'm sure not laughing, but I am smiling with pleasure!
ReplyDeleteHi Janet and Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteWanted to add that "his heart blooms for her" struck me as "she" gives "him" life = she gives him meaning - I can't stop looking at it.
Of course my interpretation could be wrong.
But I just love that painting so much.
The self portrait with blue lips seems to me as a woman who's been through something and is now changed.
Portrait of Cheryl, and this of course, is my first impression - reminds me of a grand lady, an actress or poet, and at the same time someone you could have coffee with and have a good time.
Just wanted to come back and say how your art invokes fantasy and feeling.
xo
n.
Thanks N. I like how you think.
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