Artist Statement

In her book, “The Ethics of Ambiguity,” Simone de Beauvoir applies existentialist philosophy to the relationship between seriousness and the freedom of existence. Janet Griffen seeks to unpack this dichotomy through abstract interpretations of personal identity, experience, and the phenomena that appear in her immediate surroundings. Through an accumulation of gesture and mark-making inspired by body and emotion, she seeks to create painted works that amass into layered environments that represent the essence of personal lived experience. The minutia within each layer attempts to convey the vast ephemeral web of phenomena that builds to create the organized whole.

Biography

Janet Griffen explores the relationship between personal identity and experience through painted abstract interpretations of body and emotion. She intersects organic gesture and mark-making with subtle elements of structure in her exploration of the intangible web of phenomena that amass into lived personal experience. Janet is originally from Port Perry, Ontario, and currently lives in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. She began studying Fine Art in 2017 after nearly a decade of work in Finance and graduated from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design with a BFA in April 2022. Her work has been exhibited at the Anna Leonowens Gallery, TAP Centre for Creativity, Satellite Project Space, and Siskind Gallery.