This week we welcome Kathleen Jansyn, a visual artist with a background in theatrical design, primarily costumes. She earned an MFA in theater design from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and currently works on Broadway. Her parallel and equally active art practice leverages her theatrical sensibilities in her assemblages, sculptures, and installations.
“My work is a rearrangement of familiar and common materials into something that surprises or confuses us into looking at life differently. Everything in life is made from where and what we are, where and what we were,” she writes.
“I work in sculpture, collage and installation. My work includes found objects and repurposed materials- this is a core value. In life we gather and then build upon what was before, both culturally and personally. We recombine what we already have to build the future. I work with layering, combining, reusing what has always been there — a rearrangement of ordinary things into something that surprises us into seeing anew.
Although we need rules and guidance, wise human behavior cannot be enforced from the outside. It has to be the individual’s choice, a need. Art is one way to awaken this need- giving a glimpse that there is something that is beyond common understanding. Art shows people that things can be rearranged. Things can be changed without destroying what is there, or the past. Things can be better with what we already have.
If we look, we can see other ways of doing things — but we have to look.”
