Jami Nix Rahn
Jami Nix Rahn is a multi-disciplinary artist operating in the nexus of oil painting, mixed media, and sculpture in marble and bronze.
MessageMy most recent abstract paintings began as ink drawings during the COVID-19 lockdown. Alone in my home studio with only paper, tools, and ink, I bought on a trip to China three decades earlier, I started by throwing ink splashes onto the paper and assiduously connecting the fine dots. The process became a metaphor for contact tracing.
Another piece alludes to the life-giving network of pulmonary capillaries in a set of lungs. Shapes began to emerge from the lines imbuing the work with the shared experiences of the pandemic. Viewers often see meaning beyond this, though, identifying topographical maps, stellar constellations, and sensuous outlines of the female form. In this way, the lived experience of each observer imbues the work with meaning.
I continue my ink-based process on large canvases by applying a single layer of white oil paint combined with cold wax and alkyd resin over bolder colors. Grand gestural marks of dark paint are then splashed over the cool white surface. The aesthetics of space are explored through a fine mist of spray and then by carving through the surfaces and exposing the colored layers below. This process reveals the interconnectedness in nature — the root system of aspen trees, the mycelium network connecting fungi, and the vast fields spanning galaxies.