Jenifer Carey
Jenifer, you’ve mentioned that distinct circumstances have shaped your art. Could you share some pivotal moments or experiences that have significantly influenced your artistic evolution?
I started making artist prints by chance. While visiting a gallery, Brita Prinz, in Madrid to see Picasso`s templates, I discovered that in the back there was a workshop where they taught how to make prints. I started straight away as I saw it as a medium which would allow me to always keep my work while sharing it with others again and again! I enjoyed the discipline of printing and it has helped me to synthesize my work.
The idea of making sculptures out of wire and iron gradually arose from various coincidences. I had the privilege of using the studios at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Madrid because one of the professors was a patient of mine. At the time of the financial crisis of 2007 that hit Spain very hard, my teacher was moved from clay sculpture to the metal sculpture workshop. I had experience using wire and mesh, before, to make the armatures for my clay sculpture, so I was used to the material.
Around the same time, I was invited to exhibit at an art fair for artist books. I had to present a book, several prints and some kind of objects related to the book. My artist book and prints were all about jazz, so I came up with the idea of making paper clips in the shape of saxophones. I made a drawing of the saxophone which I placed on an old bread board where I stuck pins into the corners of my drawing which I used as a template for my paper clips. Since I have two dachshunds and had a lot of drawings and an artist's book with sketches of my dogs, this idea led me to the idea of making paper clip dachshunds. From there to making three-dimensional dogs in wire, chicken wire and later in papier-mâché. As I mentioned before, this all started at the time of the financial crisis, when it was very difficult to sell any artwork, as it is now also, so this was a way to continue my sculpture without the cost of casting bronze figures which is very expensive. I bought a spot welder so I could achieve all I needed in my studio.
I went on to make three-dimensional figures of other animals and birds. I spend the summer in Ibiza where we see numerous cormorants and seagulls, hence the sculptures of cormorants and seagulls that led me to the penguin installation. I love penguins because they look like men in dinner jackets, but there had to be several of them to make it feel like penguins.
Picasso’s impact on your work is profound. In what ways do you think your approach mirrors his, and where do you diverge in your artistic methods and expressions?
My admiration for Picasso as a multifaceted artist and my curiosity about life have led me to experiment in art with many methods of plastic expression but whether I’m working in oil, sculpture or printing, it’s all a way of sharing my zest for life, of capturing the instant. Picasso was a very competent draftsman, a brilliant painter, an inventive sculptor, a creative ceramist, an illustrator of books, he, also, made beautiful artist`s prints and has designed theatre scenography and costumes. I have tried to emulate Picasso in that I have tried my hand at drawing, painting, sculpture including sculptures with clay proceeding to making moulds with plaster and silicone to make wax figures which I take to the foundry to make figures of bronze from the lost wax technique, sculpture with iron plates and sculptures with wire, and different methods of making artist`s prints including xylograph, collagraph, etching, mezzo-tint, lithograph, photo prints and silk screen printing and have helped with the scenography of a production of dancing and poetry and in a film by Hakim Alsadi. Similar to Picasso, my works are all about movement, the moment and joy in life. In the oil paintings full of bold, Mediterranean colours in the expressionist works convey the vibrancy of an instant reaching out to be shared by the viewer. They are accessible yet not facile, arresting yet pleasing.
Like Picasso, I love to paint people and as in my portraits I want to reflect a person rather than a realistic likeness. This I achieve through expression and gesture both in oil and with printing techniques.
Diverge? Picasso was a genius. I am not. I consider Picasso and myself modern painters but Picasso more talented and inventive.
As a neuro-physiotherapist with a deep understanding of human anatomy, how does this professional background influence the way you depict human figures and movement in your artwork?
It is known that Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated with anatomy which he pursued by executing dissections in hospitals to comprehend the physical working of the human body for his training to be a painter.
As a neuro-physiotherapist, my profession is all about movement thus my appreciation of the human body in action. When I observed the postures of the fishermen repairing their nets I was enthralled. I stopped to sketch them which led me to create “The fishermen” series.
I was recently asked why I used the human figure in almost all my artwork. I enjoy the challenge of creating movement in my works by using different postures to devise dynamism in my plastic expression as in my series “Compositions of youths” were I depict young people playing musical instruments.
Evidently my knowledge of the human anatomy helps me to compose my figures.
Your works are described as full of movement and vibrant, Mediterranean colours. Can you explain your choice of colours and how you capture the essence of movement in your static artworks?
Matisse, who has been a major influence in my work, said that a great modern conquest has been the secret of expression through colour. It is precisely this secret that I use with oils, combining my intuition, quick strokes and my transgression of the limits of drawing to achieve expressivity in my paintings.
I achieve dynamic expression through the use very vivid colors that give light, atmosphere and contrasts by being complementary not by chiaroscuro. The spontaneity in the stroke of those loose brushstrokes and lines and my choice of colour is completely from intuition at the moment that I am painting. My instinct and technical knowledge combine to produce images that capture moments of life.
Jazz is a spontaneous artistic expression. My love of music has enabled me to capture the movement and the atmosphere in oil, in my artist prints as well as in sculpture: my bronze musicians emerge from a long mould-making process spontaneously alive and immediate, their motion eternally ‘of the moment’. This I achieve by choosing exaggerated postures of the figures or creating dynamism in my compositions.
I started printing because I see it as a medium which allows me to always keep my work while sharing it with others again and again! I enjoy the discipline of printing and it has helped me to synthesize my work; again, the long process of making the plates doesn’t stop me seizing the instant.
Whether I’m working in oil, sculpture or print, it’s all a way of sharing my zest for life, of capturing the instant.
You work across various mediums – oil, sculpture, printing. How do you decide which medium best suits the idea that you want to express? Does the medium change the message, or does the message dictate the medium?
It all depends is the answer! Sometimes the medium dictates the message and sometimes the message dictates the medium.
Several years ago, our travels took us to Istanbul. I fell in love with Turkey, the people, the towns, the smells, the bazaars with hustle and haggling and where luminosity and atmosphere are more important than the figures, which are more essence than substance. I found the contrast of the different cultures and dress fascinating. Evidently, I could only try to convey all this by painting oil on canvas with vibrant Mediterranean colours. The theme of my work is inspired by my passion for beauty and shaped by my imagination and personal experiences thus the medium I used in this case depended on the message as in my oils of Marrakesh and Ibiza.
On the contrary when I made a sculpture of Goya`s “The third of May” out of iron plate using a blow torch to cut the metal pieces and as it leaves a burnt edge to the pieces because I perceived the medium as a scintillating approach to express the dramatic scene. Thus, in this case, the medium imposed the choice of interpretation.
I was walking my dogs in the park one day when I observered 4 elderly gentlemen sitting on a bench reading their newspapers. It caught my attention as an artist so I made a quick sketch. Back in my studio I decided to make a sculpture of iron and wire from my drawing. Here it was the subject or message that dictated the medium.
There are occasions when I use different mediums to express the same message as in the “Fishermen” series which consists of oils on canvas, sculptures in polychromed plaster, artist prints and iron and wire sculptures. I wanted to transmit the essence of struggle and harmony in daily work, the movement and strength of the fishermen and convey raw emotion as a tribute to the noble simplicity of human endeavour.
Receiving four grants at the Frans Masereel Centrum was a turning point for you. How did these opportunities enhance your dedication to art and what were some key takeaways from your time there?
In the studio where I learnt to make artist prints, I met a Russian artist who told me that she had been given a grant to work in the Centrum Frans Masereel near Antwerp in Belgium. She described the centre as being a large workshop surrounded by individual dwellings for 8 artists in a beautiful wood. The accommodation and use of the workshop were free of charge and the only obligation was to donate 10% of the work achieved during the study stay.
This was in the late 1990s before the era of Internet so I asked her for information as to how one could apply for a residency. She gave me the address and told me to send 5 prints which I did and was thrilled when I was awarded the grant. The four grants I received to work at the Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium, were a ‘hinge’ in my artistic development because they stimulated me to dedicate more time to my art, and gave me the chance to develop in a focussed, supportive environment.
As I needed to take a lot of material to make the plates for printing + paper etc. I decided to drive there from Madrid. As I have said, this was before the time of Google Maps but I found my way without any mistakes. I was allotted a very luminous cottage containing a fully equipped kitchen, a bathroom, a sofa, a drawing table and two bedrooms and a bicycle! The studios were intelligent so opened at 8am and closed at 8pm however I found my way around that by putting my compact player in the door until I finished cleaning up! On my first grant I achieved creating several different prints including a large print of “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo, 150 / 70 cm., for which I had to go to Antwerp to find paper large enough to print it and took the opportunity to do some sightseeing.
The experience was unforgettable and valuable in that I could experiment. In the collagraph print “The creation of Adam”, as with other works, it was the material that I was using that inspired the work. The cracks that one sees in the original painting in the Sistine Chapel are what inspired me to make this print with a collagraph plate. As you can see the cracks are there which gives it a unique effect. To resolve a line, as in the fingers, I use varnish which repels the ink but absorbs it where it finishes. This phenomenon I discovered by chance when printing a print of 2 plates; one dry point plate for the drawing and a collagraph plate for the claroscuro, when I printed the collagraph plate first by mistake, I realized that the dry point plate was not necessary!
The key takeaways after my visits to the Centrum were that it gave me confidence and encouragement to dedicate more time to my art. I have works exhibited in Town Council Kasterlee, The Royal Museum of Fine Art, Antwerp, and in the Centrum Frans Masereel.
Your venture into sculpture and printmaking seems to have been serendipitous. How have these forms of artistic expression allowed you to evolve differently than if you had stuck solely to painting?
As I have stated in Question 1, I started making artist prints by chance. The long process of making the plates doesn’t stop me seizing the instant. I learnt many different techniques of making artist prints including xylographs, collagraphs, etchings with mezzotint, lithographs, photo prints and silk screen prints. Becoming a printer gave me the opportunity to apply for grants at Frans Masereel Centrum which gave me the chance to develop in a focussed, supportive environment.
My venture to start sculpting was also unforeseen. As a physiotherapist, by chance, I treated a professor of sculpture and when I inquired of him as to where I could try my hand at sculpture, he invited me to attend his classes at the university. As I love wood, I inquired as to whether I could do wood carving but the reply was that I had to do clay sculpting. It was an exceptional experience and his scholars taught me every motion from making the figure to making the moulds to eventually making the wax motive to take to the foundry to cast in bronze.
The idea of making sculptures out of wire and iron gradually arose from various coincidences as I have said in Question 1.
I started using pen drawings that I had made of my husband, Alberto, to make 2 dimensional sculptures using wire and experimenting using different calibres of wire, mesh and iron plate.
I then started doing more 2 dimensional sculptures from drawings and of compositions of figures that I had done sometime before which are ´The puppet`, ´The fishermen` and ´Le Journal`.
As you will appreciate, the printing and sculpture have enhanced my artwork tremendously, especially in giving me the confidence that I needed to encourage me to continue with my artwork, which would not have been possible if I had just stuck to oil painting.
You have expressed a strong social conscience. How do you see your art contributing to society? Are there themes or messages that you aim to communicate through your works to invoke social thought or action?
As I have a strong social conscience being a physiotherapist helped me achieve my desire to contribute to society not just receive. I was born into a privileged family. Physiotherapy also made me realise that that tomorrow is not promised to anyone – hence my appreciation of life, and the desire and urgency to live each day to the full. In my artwork, that translates into sharing my zest for life, capturing the instant and conveying vibrancy.
Through the “Fishermen” series I wanted to transmit the essence of struggle and harmony in daily work, the movement and strength of the fishermen and convey raw emotion as a tribute to the noble simplicity of human endeavour.
In my oil on canvas painting “The emigrants” I desired to invoke awareness of the emigrants who arrive in boats to the coasts of Europe. The vast majority of these boats cross the Mediterranean from the African coast. Some people move in search of work or economic opportunities, to reunite with their families but others leave to escape conflict, persecution, terrorism or large-scale violations or abuses of human rights.
In the “Spectators” series I tried to convey the solitude that we experienced and the harm society suffered during the confinement for COVID 19. These oils were contrived during lockdown when there were no sport events, no theatre, no cinema or gatherings of friends.
In principle I think that my beneficence to society is through my fulltime job as a neuro-physiotherapist more than as an artist, yet I like my art to cheer people, to convey optimism and help them move forward, as I do literally via physiotherapy. I love to share my joy in life and my can-do attitude, which I’ve always needed for encouraging patients, is very present in my art.
Having lived in Madrid, surrounded by the works of Goya, Velazquez, and Picasso, how has this environment influenced your artistic style and thematic choices?
Madrid is a city which vibrates with art and culture. Its artistic talent can be seen on the streets, in the museums, in its architecture and even in its people who are busily involved with artistic expression in different ways.
Situated in the very centre of this fascinating city, housed in impressive palaces and buildings and surrounded by beautiful parks and boulevards, are the museums which form the ‘Art Mile’ of Madrid. They include the Prado, the ‘Reina Sofia’, the Thyssen, the ‘Circulo de Bellas Artes’ the ‘Caixa Forum’ and the ‘Mapfre’ Foundation which hosts some of the most interesting temporary exhibitions. Aside from all this, the city is adorned with sculptures including some enormous bronzes made by Botero, the ‘Meninas’ of Valdes and the steel and bronze abstract art of Chillida.
Surrounded by so much art is very stimulating but I am not sure that the works of the great Spanish masters have influenced in my artistic style which is more determined by the German expressionists however the theme of several of my works were inspired by the masters. I was influenced by Picasso’s Rose Period when he used pastel colours in the paintings, including warm tones and emphasizing pink. The most recurrent theme is the life of the people who work in the circus and doing acts in the streets. Another work that was stimulated from this period is my installation of bronze sculptures,” The family of acrobats”. Another work which was motivated by a master is an iron sculpture " The 3rd of May" by Goya. In fact, it was the material that inspired me to use this work of Goya. Leaving the burnt edges caused by the blowtorch for cutting the shapes creates an atmosphere. My “Homage to Picasso”, an etching with mezzotint, was inspired by “The Meninas” of Velazquez and “The Guernica” of Picasso.
On the whole I derive my inspiration from personal observation, experiences, knowledge of the history of art and imagination, drawing on music especially jazz, literature and travel, especially to Ibiza and Morocco where the light is magical.
Looking ahead, are there new techniques, mediums, or themes you are eager to explore in your future projects? How do you envision your art evolving in the next few years?
There are 2 techniques that I would like to try my hand at.
The first I have already mentioned in that I like to work with wood. I would love to learn to do a wood carving sculpture. I admire the Spanish wood sculptor, Francisco Leiro. I would like to find a large trunk of a tree and see how it inspires my imagination and then work from there.
The second is that I would like to try my hand in ceramic. Fortuitously there is a pottery
workshop very near my home so when I have time, I will enrol there to learn the technique. What I most want to achieve is to decorate the pots that I make.
At the moment, as it is an Olympic year, I am making a series of sculptures in iron plate of sportsmen in action.
The evolution is difficult to envisage. I am a fortunate artist because I do not depend on my art for my income so I do whatever appeals to me at the moment and I do not have to worry whether it is commercial or not.