Contemporary artist Jan Murray from Colorado the visual world through diverse media; photography, watercolor, collage, printmaking and other mixed media, including the IPad.
Her desire is to create an “arts” experience, transposing her abstract and representational imagery and design onto everyday objects. My conversation with the artist is an invitation to other artists and designers for collaborations. Can you imagine being wrapped up in linens and towels in one of Jan’s bold, fun, colorful designs? Connect with Jan on IG @mr.kitty8888.
Some of Jan Murray’s works and designs.
Script: Does not include a transcript of conversation with the artist
Hello my art enthusiasts! I would like to welcome contemporary artist Jan Murray from Colorado on my show.
She explores the visual world through diverse media—photography, watercolor, collage, printmaking and other mixed media, including the IPad. Her desire is to create an “arts” experience, transposing her abstract and representational imagery and design onto everyday objects. Beautifying the ordinary everyday consumable objects to be surrounded by and lived with in domestic spaces, from linens to small appliances, dishware and more. Her art tells a story that can be custom made with home design. Welcome Jan!
Before we dive into your work, I did some research on women artists who paved the way and influenced this marriage of art and design.
I came across Otti Berger, from the influential 20th century Bauhaus School. “House of Building” in German. It had a major impact on art and design—one of their concerns was the lack of design involved in many mass-produced goods—Berger was an artist and innovator, in textiles, even developing her own curriculum. When she left the Bauhaus in 1932, she opened her own Atelier or workshop for Textiles in Berlin, Germany. She established a successful cooperation with numerous textiles companies which were producing materials based on her innovative solutions her designs were intended for mass production. In 1936 she was banned from working in Germany due to her Jewish origins, and was forced to close her company down. The Art Institute of Chicago, in their collection for example, has swatches of furniture fabric, in innovative, modernist designs, geometric shapes, neutral threads or as in the piece, Sample of Upholstery for Tubular Furniture, 1932, thin vertical bands bright colors, blue, yellow, red with stripes of black. They seemingly flow like rivers.
There are some parallels between artists like Otti Berger or Anni Albers also from the Bauhaus School who worked in textiles, creating imagery based on modernist aesthetic. Your work, Jan, however, utilizes more diverse media—each in itself are small works of visual expressions—each piece is a narrative of your personal, creative experience, your response to nature, to the urban landscape, your engagement to the people you meet. Let me share with the audience one of my favorites. “Undulating” incorporates and is inspired by Chinese Zodiac signs—this specific work inspired by year of the Tiger. What we see is repeating patterns—they look like cyclone, yellows and oranges articulated by thin black lines, with bright circles of reddish-oranges, like bright suns. It is fluid and bold—one can imagine it being transposed or appropriated onto bedding or pillows.