Visual Explorations

Philosophy is often presented as the fundamental interpretative tool, but art can also serve this role. Visual Explorations is the online art showcase of the Global Spiral. Every monthly issue will present a “visual exploration” through painting, sculpture, photography, and images from the sciences, expanding our understanding of foundational questions.

Our showcase is open to submissions. Please include the title of the piece, a short biographical sketch, and a brief description of the artwork (in the case of science images, tell what is being portrayed). Send all submissions to visualexplorations@metanexus.net.

Maple leaves, dry and curled,
eddy in a ghost dance,
speak to her with voices long gone...
father's chant, mother's croon,
lover's ragged breath, whisper
a name she once owned
but has forgotten.
Bonfires carry their spirits to the sky
leave behind a nutbrown scent she tries to hold.

—Jeanie Tomanek, "Genesee Moons"

Artist's Statement

Throughout my adult life I have always painted—sometimes only one painting a year. Several years ago I escaped corporate life. Since then I have concentrated on developing my style and voice in my work.

I paint to explore the significance of ideas, memories, events, feelings, dreams and images that seem to demand my closer attention. Some of the themes I investigate come first in poems I write. Literature, folktales and myths often inspire my exploration of the feminine archetype. My figures often bear the scars and imperfections, that, to me, characterize the struggle to become.

In my work I use oils, acrylic, pencil and thin glazes to create a multi-layered surface that may be scratched through, written on, or painted over to reveal and excavate the images that feel right for the work.

In reclaiming and reconstructing areas of the canvas, the process of painting becomes analogous to having a second chance at your life, this time a little closer to the heart’s desire.

www.jeanietomanek.com