Home In Their Own Words Salted Trickery by Jennifer Pizzillo

Salted Trickery by Jennifer Pizzillo

1
Salted Trickery by Jennifer Pizzillo

I’m working on a set of drawings that use some trickery with salt. I flood the surface of a really nice thick smooth piece of paper with watercolor until it almost seems too wet, and then put piles of kosher salt on the wet surface. The salt sucks up color and gives the surface a funky lichen effect. Once completely dry I scrape off the salt and start working on the surface with acrylic ink applied by a dip pen.

I love pen and ink for its sublime line making potential, but it is a risky way to work because even a slight bump or sneeze can ruin a whole piece. Oil paintings are pretty easy to fix: you just scrape up the mistake, add a layer, or paint over it, and your flub is fixed. With acrylic ink you really can’t fix the missteps, but with a steady hand and dose of good fortune you can get a slightly raised, slightly shiny, silky line quality that’s really lovely.

Artwork title and media by Jennifer Pizillo (2015)
Salt-aire (2015) by Jennifer Pizzillo 18″ x 24″ watercolor and acrylic ink on paper

I was born in Pittsburgh just as the manufacturing industry there was crumbling. When I was about 10 we moved to a small town in Western Maryland and I don’t know how well I fit in. It was the kind of place where everyone seemed to be distant cousins. No one went to dangerous places like Baltimore, or Washington, and even though I spent 8 years going to school there I still felt like an outsider when I graduated.

I went back to Pittsburgh for a year in college to attend Chatham College. I spent more time with my grandparents and made great friends and got to know the city again. I loved living there. I transferred to Towson to finish my art degree but I still visit Pittsburgh often to see family and friends, and I sort of always wished I never had moved away from there. My husband and I like to travel and even those short trips North help me remember that DC is not really the center of the universe.

I don’t make art for provocation, or to advocate for feminism, or abused victims, or the powerless, or to express political rage, or to tell my sad stories, or to exorcize demons. For me, art is exploration, itch scratching, mental maintenance and creative noodle exercise. I make things and then they pile up and I occasionally show them to other people to make money to buy more stuff so I can keep up with my art itching. Life is complicated; art really isn’t for me.

Jennifer PizilloJennifer Pizzillo is a graduate of Towson University. Her work is concentrated on assembling pleasing color palates and striking pattern in order to produce something visually stimulating. Through the practice of mark making, the effect of mixing textures and media, and the translucence of layering, she aims to create a harmonious patterned aesthetic that incorporates a wide swath of materials, surfaces, and techniques. She lives and works in Montgomery County, Maryland. More information at: https://www.wpadc.org/artist/jennifer-pizzillo

Image at the top of the post is a detail from Salt-aire (2015) by Jennifer Pizzillo.

Jennifer Pizzillo is a featured artist in “Hothouse: imPRINT”, an exhibit that will be open from May 7 – June 20, 2015 at the Capitol Skyline Hotel. This article was produced with the support of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities within a partnership between Day Eight and the Washington Project for the Arts.

1 COMMENT

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here