Jennifer Balkan

Jennifer grew up in New Jersey where she drew everything she saw. After living in Boulder and Seattle she moved to Austin. She attained her Ph.D. in 2001 after conducting anthropological fieldwork in Mexico. Although her experience in Mexico was rich, Jennifer longed for artistic creativity. In August 2001, Jennifer spent a month in Spain, France, and Italy where she saw masterworks that would become her inspiration. She then threw herself into oil painting and now paints fervently. Jennifer has taken art classes at the Laguna Gloria Art School, the Austin Fine Arts School and at the Art Students League in Denver.  She currently paints in her studio, in life painting groups and teaches painting.

“I now realize that my time studying the human psyche both psychologically and sociologically

must have left its imprint on my brain permanently...because I cannot seem to

stray too far from it in my painting.”

“Moths Fly to the Light I” merges the figure with

fragments of maps. Like so many aspects of organic life (i.e. trees, rivers, snowflakes), maps with road

and river systems represent a structure much like the

biological systems of an organism. My focus on

maps has inspired me to approach my self-portraits

topographically, thinking of the figure as the

embodiment of recesses and convexities, peaks and valleys – using a particular pigment and hue to

represent a physical area or a manifestation of

emotion, that is, what lies underneath the skin.

Much like a sculptor adds pieces of clay to

an armature, I add dollops of paint to the

two-dimensional structures of “Woman 1 & 2.”

As the form curves, the planes change and I try

to capture this changing topography with a

change in tone and color much like a river

changes shape as it makes its descent.”