Flytrap

by Janet Snell

59 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1990

About the author

Soon after I graduated from MICA, my work began to involve the depiction of the psychology of the human head and figure. The relationship of mind to body interests me greatly. I use it to deconstruct the world we live in, our fears, our isolation and loneliness, our urge to connect, our collective melancholia. My drawings and paintings also address the man-woman thing, the fragility of family dynamics, societal and psychological violence. These themes are often expressed with metaphors found in dreamscapes, and in the case of my portraits, with color. I use color freely to express the subject’s personality---i.e. yellow for intelligence, violet for moodiness---while the facial features remain realistic. This work is semi-realistic & semi-expressionistic, and thereby connected to my other work.

I think in images. I can get an image in my head while listening to Tom Waits or Jimi Hendrix, for instance, or from reading a favorite author like Genet. I do a thumbnail sketch of the image and think about its metaphysics, the nature of its reality. Solving the problem of finding the right space for the figure is the next step; that’s where process comes in. The touch of the brush leads me, in an intuitive way, to develop the space, which is abstract expressionist. The images themselves mark me as a neo-German expressionist. Image and space are the two elements that focus the relationship between the figurative and the abstract, and provide meaning. Together, they help the viewer experience the complexities of the human subject.