Jennifer Roberts is an Argentine Tango dancer and is drawn to the intimacy and loss of self that this art form enables, visually explored throughout her work. Truly dancing Argentine Tango demands rigorous technique combined with complete surrender to the present moment. Two dancers become one heart, two divine sparks of awareness peering into each other’s souls. This blurring of boundaries and looseness can only happen through a juxtaposition of structure and improvisation, here achieved by the artist improvising with the flow of her media, the two becoming one.
Her mixed media work reflects a dance between control and spontaneity and appears both organic and otherworldly, inviting viewers to experience a dynamic tension between lightness and darkness. Jennifer often begins with washes of color, sometimes directing it with brushes, pipettes, and spray bottles, other times letting it flow naturally. The result is a dynamic expression of media that remains tantalizingly beyond complete conscious control. Ink additions to these paintings create tension and call to mind something microscopic, yet celestial. Her mixed media acrylic works often incorporate paper collage, ash, and the use of erosive techniques like sanding.
Jennifer also draws inspiration from the sacred geometry found in Islamic art, especially the old ottoman palaces in Turkey where she lived. The beauty of geometric forms, repeated endlessly, are a mirror for the infinite facets of the divine. She explores many of these aspects in her Geometric series. Hexagons in particular hold deep significance for her. Perfectly symmetrical, highly efficient, they’re found everywhere in nature. Hexagons are the basis of organic chemistry. All life is built on a scaffolding of hexagons. A hexagonal storm crowns the planet Saturn, the astrological giver of harsh lessons that yield tremendous personal growth. A hexagon also sits at the heart of the Star of David, symbolizing divine perfection and the integration of the masculine and feminine principles.
Her Microbial series contrasts this small micro-universe of scale with the perfection of the hexagon. Similar to the tango, the hexagon’s ethereal serenity coexists in creative tension with florid, teeming, turbid, chaotic life. The bodies of all living beings are packed with cells operating in coordination as they receive and transmit information. In asking what is the intelligence or consciousness of a microbe, and what is the innate intelligence thrumming within each of us, she finds that even asexual creatures can be highly charged and sexual.
Jennifer’s forthcoming series, Raw, explores her new experience as a parent. Motherhood is often idolized and romanticized in mainstream media and popular culture. However, behind the facade of perfect motherhood lies a complex range of feelings that are frequently dismissed. This series focuses on the emotional and physical aspects of motherhood that are often stigmatized, suppressed, and unrecognized.
Her mixed media work reflects a dance between control and spontaneity and appears both organic and otherworldly, inviting viewers to experience a dynamic tension between lightness and darkness. Jennifer often begins with washes of color, sometimes directing it with brushes, pipettes, and spray bottles, other times letting it flow naturally. The result is a dynamic expression of media that remains tantalizingly beyond complete conscious control. Ink additions to these paintings create tension and call to mind something microscopic, yet celestial. Her mixed media acrylic works often incorporate paper collage, ash, and the use of erosive techniques like sanding.
Jennifer also draws inspiration from the sacred geometry found in Islamic art, especially the old ottoman palaces in Turkey where she lived. The beauty of geometric forms, repeated endlessly, are a mirror for the infinite facets of the divine. She explores many of these aspects in her Geometric series. Hexagons in particular hold deep significance for her. Perfectly symmetrical, highly efficient, they’re found everywhere in nature. Hexagons are the basis of organic chemistry. All life is built on a scaffolding of hexagons. A hexagonal storm crowns the planet Saturn, the astrological giver of harsh lessons that yield tremendous personal growth. A hexagon also sits at the heart of the Star of David, symbolizing divine perfection and the integration of the masculine and feminine principles.
Her Microbial series contrasts this small micro-universe of scale with the perfection of the hexagon. Similar to the tango, the hexagon’s ethereal serenity coexists in creative tension with florid, teeming, turbid, chaotic life. The bodies of all living beings are packed with cells operating in coordination as they receive and transmit information. In asking what is the intelligence or consciousness of a microbe, and what is the innate intelligence thrumming within each of us, she finds that even asexual creatures can be highly charged and sexual.
Jennifer’s forthcoming series, Raw, explores her new experience as a parent. Motherhood is often idolized and romanticized in mainstream media and popular culture. However, behind the facade of perfect motherhood lies a complex range of feelings that are frequently dismissed. This series focuses on the emotional and physical aspects of motherhood that are often stigmatized, suppressed, and unrecognized.