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Born in San Jose, California (1982) and currently living in the New York City area, J’han is an emerging contemporary artist who is driven by her creativity, informed by her curiosity, and inspired by her experiences, and works within sculpture, drawing, painting, and installation art, with a recognizably unique style best described as experimental and experiential, infused with expressionist, surrealist, and abstract elements.
Academically, J’han is a graduate of the MFA Studio Art program at American University (2019) and the MA in Art Education program at The City College of New York (2024). J’han also holds a BFA in Illustration summa cum laude from Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (2017). Additionally, J’han holds an a Professional Teaching Certificate in the State of New York and an Advanced Professional Teaching Certificate in the State of Maryland.
Professionally, J’han teaches visual/studio art full-time in a visual arts high school setting in the New York City public school system. J’han is also an Adjunct Instructor at a Maryland community college, teaching art during summers through “Kids on Campus” courses, after previously teaching for-credit and continuing education courses.
In late 2019/early 2020, J’han was a member of the Critical Feedback Program residency at Trestle Gallery / Trestle Art Space in Brooklyn, NY / New York, NY. In 2018, J’han was awarded a full scholarship to the School of Art summer residency at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.
For J’han, art is a way of life.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an emerging contemporary artist and educator, and I strive to continuously enrich my life and to develop and learn from my work through experiential and experimental processes. I am fascinated with the visceral experience of art and the dialogue it can produce. My practice as an artist is combined with my dedication to creativity, expression, art education, and the art community. I believe that everyone has a voice, which they can embrace and explore through the creative and fine arts.
I am a minority female from a disadvantaged background whose path to self-recognition and growth came with a heavy heart and a range of unfortunate events and experiences. Now, however, I have achieved a deep, broad, and advanced education and am able to speak on the power of art and education. Despite all prior lack of support, motivation, or inspiration, I am proud to have completed an MFA in Studio Art (American University), an MA in Art Education (The City College of New York), and a BFA in Illustration (Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design). As a first generation graduate, much less graduate school, I am extremely proud of my academic and artistic accomplishments.
I have discovered the importance of knowledge and how both education and artistic expression can empower individuals to be unafraid of the unknown. I teach and live in a way that dictates learning from the chaos of life, developing skills, strategy, and perseverance along the way.
I have studied the philosophy of knowledge and education and the fine arts, but I also find myself interested in a variety of other ideas and themes, including identity, memory, society, the human body, mapping the passage of time, socioeconomics and education, and the imagery and allegory of the line.
I thrive on abstraction, surrealism, and conceptual thinking. I am fascinated by the process of drawing from memory and imagination, just as I am in analyzing and constructing unconventional paths and creative alternatives. The challenge of conveying conceptual thoughts pushes my artistic abilities, and my curiosity is stimulated by exploring and identifying connections to underlying issues. The imagery of the line is very significant to me and has become the foundation of my work, as I utilize lines in a two- and three-dimensional format through suggestion, manipulation, and transformation. I explore how different materials and mediums can be intertwined to create powerful visual aesthetics. I am, in some ways, a figurative artist and find the body to be a versatile subject for the exploration of complex concepts. I am fascinated by how the physical rendering of a form or gesture (in any medium) is a simple reference to all that is humanity but, simultaneously, a method to convey the detailed complexity of being human.
Through education, practice, time, and discourse, I have seen the steady progression of my professional abilities and functions. More importantly, I have learned to use art and art education as tools to convey important messages of hope and perseverance to those who may not even know they need them.
For me, art is a way of life!
J’han
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