Janet Lucroy

My Inception series explores the idea of juxtaposing geometric forms against freeform color fields. The structure of the shapes and lines, as well as parts of the initial compositional sketches, are visualized via procedural programming. The pieces are then actualized physically through varying mixtures of acrylic, ink, graphite, laser cut Bristol or 3D printing and collage.

My Fragments series starts with paint tests/scraps/pools & palette scrapings leftover from other projects as inspiration points, collaged into new pieces.

For years I’ve saved leftover elements from various pieces: test prints, unused bits of laser cut elements, paint tests, etc., feeling they were inherently interesting in & of themselves. At some point I became inspired to use these leftover elements as a starting point for new work, thus the start of my ‘Remnants’ series.

Feeling the impact of ever-increasing wildfires as well as toxic air from wildfire smoke (locally & globally), fire/aftermath of fire developed as a conceptual theme, abstracted. To support this theme, I then incorporated materials related to fire into the work: charcoal, india ink, and/or pyrography.

My Murmur pieces start with organic forms found in nature. Individually painted, scanned, and photographed elements go through multiple passes of 2D image processing and 3D computer graphics texturing. Through this process I explore juxtapositions of natural and synthetic; subtle and intense; hard and soft - which intermingle in a celebration of color, texture, and mark-making.

Work from this series consists of color fields with an emphasis on layering, peeking through diaphanous screens that simultaneously reveal and conceal what exists beneath.

This series layers contrasting naturalistic and synthetic compositional elements via digital collage that refer to landscape without being literal. The color is more directly mapped to the type of atmospheric landscapes I find deeply compelling. The net impression is intended to be simultaneously general and specific, evocative of a broad composite memory of landscape.

The work from this series embodies a coalescence between drawing, painting, scanography, photography, computer programming, and digital painting/compositing/effects, with occasional inclusion of 3D graphics. The imagery is intended to loosely connote landscape, with allusions to both microscopic and macroscopic spaces, blurring the line between the two, creating environments that are both familiar and mysterious.

The Chance series explores the relationship between freeform painted elements, and lines that were generated using procedural programming. Each element was created independently of the other, but as I was looking to combine them in possible compositions, I noticed striking similarities between the two. Paint is a purely physical, organic phenomenon — essentially solid particulate suspended in liquid. The linear element is a purely mathematical formulation — an equation created to make a curvilinear line within the bounds of a square. The fact that these two different processes ended up having such structural similarities formed the inspirational basis of this series.

The Occurrence series emerged from experiments using acrylic paint combined with a variety of liquid substrates and mediums on a range of surfaces. I allowed the materials to intermingle as unobtrusively as possible, intentionally avoiding any preconceived configuration so I could observe the natural behavior of their chemical/physical interactions. With certain specific combinations, these highly naturalistic forms began to occur. I was intrigued by the results - at turns looking like microscopic or galactic entities, underwater creatures, or other organic structures. These happenstance artifacts became the basis of this body of work.