Jane Winfield

(M.F.A., painting, 2012)

My paintings are frustrated landscapes: peripheral or punctuated views of natural elements bumping up against unnatural things. My images stem from a searching, playful way of grappling with concepts of dimension; imagined places where space and volume are interchangeable. I find that using paint to convey visual information is as innately liberating as making up your own words. Everything in these paintings is smashed together, taken apart, sorted, copied, made-up, erased, and recombined to form my own alien language. Using an array of painting and drawing techniques, I employ the full spectrum of mark-making vocabulary to strengthen the intrigue between the medium and the subject, and between the viewer and the painting itself. The variety of marks and materials is meant to correspond directly with the images they construct, resulting in a broad range of moods, surfaces, and opportunities for interpretation. These scenes are painted as viewed through the eyes of a stranger to this world.