“I was a teenager when I learned that it was possible to make a living as a professional artist. I think I knew somehow that the role of the artist was inherently subversive and that was something that interested me very much. I jumped in and never looked back,” reflects Jenn Dierdorf, an artist who makes objects in order to understand the world. As a maker, she loves to play with subjective ideas, color and form. A painter working primarily in acrylic, ink and watercolor as well as paper and collage, drawing is also a big part of her practice. Jenn loves experimenting with new materials and techniques. Her work is about painting and women’s relationship to art. Her recent years painting mostly flower still lives is a reference to Dutch flower painting, women’s early participation in art-making, and how women are seen by society. “While I am mainly representing images of cut flowers in a vase, I am also experimenting with paint, mark-making, line, form, color and pattern. I do not paint from life and I am not interested in representing nature in my work. What I am interested in is making space for women – literally and figuratively, through art and any other means necessary.” Working out of her home studio, a Bushwick loft, Dierdorf like many artists struggles with the efficacy of her ideas at times. “It’s really easy for people to dismiss ‘flower painting’ as cliché and irrelevant – and that’s related to why I chose to work with it in the first place.” Jenn comments on the misogyny perpetuated by the current administration, calling it an “incredible travesty,” and admits that “Painting flowers at this time does not begin to convey the seething anger and hurt I’ve felt over the last couple years. Things are definitely gestating, I’m just not sure yet what is going to come out.” Jenn has some large-scale paper works that will be very mixed-media and sculptural in the works for an upcoming exhibition, and is a contributor to The Coastal Post Art blog where she writes about women of color. She is a coordinator for The Feminist Art Project (TFAP) out of Rutgers University. In 2015, Jen co-founded Lady Painters with fellow artist Kelsey Shwetz, a creative networking initiative for women artists with a strong focus on painting. Lady Painters organizes small gatherings during which “We share our work and get to know each other in an informal space.” The Lady Painter website launches next month in an effort to make work by women more accessible to the public. Meanwhile, Jenn has work included in the group exhibition “Don’t Make A Scene” at Greenpoint Hill in Brooklyn, NYC up thru November 18th. She has a two-person exhibition titled “Break Loose” at Carthage College near Chicago with Kevin Stuart opening in February curated by Ryan Peter Miller, coinciding with an interview by curator Ryan Miller for his podcast Bad At Sports. Finally, this May, Jenn is featured in a group show of American and Slovakian artists that will tour several art spaces in Bratislava and NYC.
Follow the artist on IG @jenndier