Artist Statement, J Wren Supak:
Working in painting or digital media, depending on the project, I work non-representationally through abstraction. At the intersection of intimate and shared experiences, the artistic process involves research, such as historically, then responding materially—a practice that frees me to clarify information subjectively. I am tied to the subject even when linked to a broader context. Sometimes I even recycle items like my grandmother’s wallpaper into the art. Imitating life, I make intentional and unplanned marks, such as pouring, brushing, removing, or blowing, manifesting what we do or do not control. Light, framing, or gesture recur throughout my work. I can be intentionally anachronistic by subsuming style or technique. I differentiate myself by illuminating my experiences. My body of work, subject, process, gesture, historical ruminations, and storytelling through abstraction drives the narrative through metaphor. Paint and mark demonstrate the physicality of interpretation. The point of the abstraction is to avoid the didactic nature of narration through a re-imagination of experience.