I am a nomad, traveling all of my life. As an artist I use oil paint, photography, writing, poetry.
I am an art scholar (PhD) specializing in traditional Chinese/Japanese ink painting and its aesthetic principles (the use of 'emptiness', 'floating perspective', 'movement of energy') and in contemporary art from China. Studying Asian art while being trained in oil painting in Europe balances my work between East and West.
I like the color ι, the 'color of mountains in the distance' in traditional inkpainting, translated as ‘blue’, ‘green’, or ‘black’. As soon as I pick up the brush I disappear into the mountains transferring the tranquility around me onto the canvas, I splash waves into seascapes or compose cloudscapes. I want to create a realm of nomadic freedom in which the spectator can roam and wander in close connection to nature.
I am also interested in how political power works through myth building, the readiness of masses of people to blindly serve and follow, in bottom-up dynamics, in the tipping point - a split second in which everything turns around and mighty power falls into pieces, in the invincible power of resistance and the impact and resilience individual people can have in creating countermovements; in how capitalist power works through propaganda destroying the planet and life itself; and in the role of art and cultural memory.
This site lists a selection of oil paintings I have created since 2011 (a major turning point in my life) and exhibitions from recent years.
My name in characters is ε εΎ·η.
Publications: jeanneboden.com
Photography: Photoblog
Interviews: Video
IG: jbodenart
© Image Artist at Work: Diana Dimbueni