Meeting Ground
Jan Freeman Long
Opening Night Reception, February 14, 5-7:30pm
When Jan Freeman Long was ten years old, her family moved to a small coastal town in southern Oregon. Their new home included a large front yard with an ocean view and a trail to the beach. It was during these early years that she began to comprehend that life as it unfolds in the natural world resides solely in the moment, unfettered by the human intervention of measured time.
While studying Painting at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in the mid-1990s, she was quickly attracted to working with abstraction. It offered her an open-ended vocabulary with which to look beyond the obvious and enter a sense of the unknown. It was her way into exploring the internal landscapes of being human while residing in both measured time and what is timeless.
Jan’s final semester at CCA took place in Florence, Italy, at Studio Art Centers International. Along with her studies, she took many side trips throughout the country. Early on, a new fascination emerged: the beauty and endurance of countless ancient buildings and ruins and how they continue to age. She shot over 60 rolls of film of peeling surfaces, doorways, windows, rooflines, and piazzas. This immersive experience continues to inform her work now and then.
In 1996, she earned a BFA in Painting – with Distinction – and has since maintained a dedicated studio practice. In the studio, following her intuition is key to her artistic process. She relies on the wisdom she continues to glean from nature’s ongoing patterns and cycle to explore what is timeless, enigmatic, universal, and enduring.
Her latest exhibition, Meeting Ground at Hemmings Gallery, will feature many works from her recent Cross Section series. For Jan, “I rely on a visual vocabulary of abstraction, pattern, texture, and color. Especially with color, I often enjoy creating a palette that employs nuance. In this series, I have added the compositional element of narrow edges used as outlines as a way to render each as a cross-section or a slice of my visual thinking process. The shapes and spaces I work with are my way into an active form of meditation while drawing and painting.”
Captions:
Atmospheric Chamber
by Jan Freeman Long
mixed media on canvas-unframed
24” x 36” x 1.5”
Field Notes, Morning
by Jan Freeman Long
40” x 50” x 2”, mixed media on canvas-unframed
340 Walnut Ave. | Ketchum
208.254.1097
hemmingsgallery.com
