Jantje Visscher

 

Mentor Philosophy

So many skills are needed to be a practicing artist. I always teach people to take stock of their current needs and revise goals often. We all have many irons in the fire, from raising families, earning a living income, taking care of parents —- many activities get in the way of spending our energy on art making. Every time we have a minor or major life change, we have to refocus.

Having said that, I teach protégées to focus intently on their current art goals. That involves stating them clearly, articulating the steps, and making sure there is time to accomplish them. Lots of art skills can be learned at the time you need those skills to accomplish what you want. But some skills are basic, and drawing is among these. More and more, computer skills and Photoshop skills are basic. Learning to find out what is being done elsewhere in the art world, marketing skills, career developing exhibits — these are the nitty gritty of art lives. Getting these basic career skills will be one goal.

And of course, developing your art. That will be our main goal. That involves creating art on a regular schedule, philosophical discussions, getting responses from outside people, seeing lots of art, learning the technical skills necessary for your current medium. If those happen to not be my special skills, we will find another resource for them.

Artist Statement

My recent art work deals with science and art, and the way we perceive – or don’t notice – the forces of nature. The last two images I have included here are part of my Drawings in Light series. This particular piece is interactive, and I included it in the Traffic Zone Center for Art Gallery show this spring.  The two images show ways in which the viewers have left the piece on two different days in the gallery.

In 2007 and again in 2008, I exhibited a series of very large works called “Drawings in Light,” at the MAEP in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and also at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The “Drawings in Light” can be seen at http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?rid=250866.

The glass sculpture shows the Drawings in Light using glass. One would think it would be similar to the mylar and plastic light reflections, but the glass has an internal distortion that has its own beauty.

I have been exploring different ways in which I can develop ideas digitally using Adobe Photoshop.  The digital print on aluminum is one of these.  I can “doodle” on my laptop, and save the doodles I like as prints on aluminum, ending up with a transparency that I like.