i.l. Janai-Ami

Artist Statement

September Eleventh came on the heels of several personal tragedies in my life involving loss. In the wake of 9/11, I discovered peace in the creative process and began my own personal journey of self-discovery following years of suppressing my creative self.

From the outset, painting served as a release from both personal as well as societal concerns. It all began with an explosion of creative energy onto the canvas of over three thousand florals memorializing those who died on 9/11.

Since those early works, painting has been a 'safe place' to let go of pain while simultaneously express feelings of passion and love freely without any restraints at all. Exploring the medium in new ways feeds my intellectual curiosity and desire to learn and explore and discover. Brilliant extraordinary color exploding onto my canvas & the sensuous tactile properties of the oils on my hands - together allow me to express my deepest love and passion without compromise, without any sort of restraint. I just 'let go.' I am free.

Painting is sometimes meditation, sometimes contemplation, and always about taking my mind somewhere else and letting go. Giving in to every wild impulse with every stroke of color across my canvas, letting go of pain, loss, fear. But in the end strangely enough, the resulting work does not 'let go' at all. Instead, for reasons I do not fully comprehend, the work somehow captures and memorializes my feelings in ways they can never be forgotten.

I hope when people see my work, even if they can't explain how or why, they experience these feelings of love, of passion - that are integrally woven into the painting and transferred as if by magic to the viewer's head and heart.

For me, it's never about the painting.

In the end, my work is only about love.https://www.Janai-Ami.com