Jen Garrido

Region: Pacific Coast

I construct my paintings and drawings by using a delicate balance of choice and process.

I project images and forms onto the surface in response to personal narratives and internal dialogue, to the push and pull of the composition’s internal gravity, and to the medium of painting or drawing materials. As I compose, I weave shapes through the picture plane; the gestures I record can read as flat or, alternatively, as multidimensional and sculptural. I favor nature-based forms and rhythms, and I am drawn to shapes that tangle, overlap, sit, lean, and lay. In my recent work, the monochromatic compositions balance between the architectural and the organic, the painted and drawn, and the formal and biomorphic.

As I work through the multiple stages and processes of each piece by weighing ambiguity with representation, and by adding, subtracting, abstracting and transforming, I gradually arrive at the final composition.