Jennifer Cecere

In September 2019, after returning from Dijon, France for the opening of Pattern, Crime and Decoration, look back to what the curators called “the last Artist-led American Movement. https://www.leconsortium.fr/en/pattern-crime-decoration

I began making paintings.

Maybe as a reaction to Pattern & Decoration and as a way forward, I painted. I still use the same methods and materials but with the addition of Navigational Charts. My first job in New York in 1975 was selling Navigational Charts.

Early pieces like New York Harbor, 2019 and Hudson & East River, 2019 highlight pattern with the addition of “drawing”. Pattern over time became less dominant, As I continued to work, painting took over.

I kept the charts, each one represents a personal connection, Plum Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Block Island to name a few.

As Covid quarantined everyone and social injustice flared, my paintings continued to become less reliant on pattern and more painterly.

By spring, i had moved out to Long Island. I painted and went swimming. Swimming and places to swim became the theme…Night Swimming, Jelley Fish, Pond, Waterhole.

Increasingly organic and abstract, suggesting landscapes, these paintings satisfy my need to organize space, connecting the private to the public.

Charts remain for now but with the addition of bits of old beach towels, gel-thickened paint and lace.