Artist of the Month September 2023

Jaye Alison Moscariello

Massachusetts, United States

I began painting when I was pretty young, and gratefully acquired a few skills at Paier College of Art in Hamden, Connecticut. In the 80s I moved to New York City. .After a few years I began showing my work regionally and internationally by way of friends and associations.

West Coast warmth and the possibilities of new experiences motivated a move to Hollywood, where in my tiny art studio on Fairfax I painted a lot about loss and isolation.in response to the AIDS epidemic which stole the lives of many of my friends and associates. I also grieved the untimely deaths of my sister Leslie, and both my parents. I continued to exhibit wherever I felt most called or invited. Eventually I found my dream studio and gallery in Santa Monica where I lived and worked for eight years during which time I worked on series’ that addressed such topics as climate change, genetically engineered foods, and 9/11.. 

 After nearly 21 years in Los Angeles, a  body of work, a series of paintings in gouache, watercolor, and pen and ink on arches paper entitled “Chase the Monkey” informed me that it was time to leave the city and to reconnect with nature. I did just that in May of 2009, after meeting my future husband farmer/composer Bill Taylor, moving first to Anderson Valley, then to Elk and finally to Redwood Valley where we managed our farm, Floodgate Farm on Heart Mountain, where Just outside my door existed an abundance of wildlife and natural beauty. In 2016 I published a not just for children’s picture storybook of the adventure entitled “Capture the Moon”.

 The move to Northern California spurred my desire to paint the landscape - motivated in part by the fear that I would wake up one day and it would all be gone! I had some kind of doomsday concern, tantamount to extreme climate change or bombs going off like Hiroshima —something drastic.

The Wildfires of 2017 were traumatic, we experienced three on our land that year.

In processing the fire experiences and living with the constant awareness that what happened then can happen again.  I produced  a short film entitled:: From the Ashes - Fire, Survival. and Renewal, our community’s responses to the Redwood Complex Fire 2017.

In 2020,  I executed a series of painting entitled “Smoke ’N Fire”, and largely due to the sudden death of my youngest sibling and ensuing California wildfires, we chose to sell our 195 acre place and move back to the East Coast, where our families live and where we are creating a new life and farm and maintaining close relations with those we left behind.  

 I am still witnessing and interpreting the landscape among other things!  

How and when did you start creating art?

I started creating art in secret as a young child, making drawings on scrap pieces of paper and hiding them under the bed. I had watched my grandmother create wondrous and exotic images using a ball point pen on shirt cardboards from the dry cleaners, when she took care of me.

What media and genres do you work in?

I work mostly in wet media, I particularly like water-based paints; acrylic, latex, casein, gouache and watercolor, and I enjoy mark making with graphite or pencil, and sometimes color pencils. Because of my interests, I am inclined to work in a variety of styles from abstract to surrealism. I consider myself somewhat of a conceptual artist and utilize my skills to execute my inspirations or obsessions.

Who or what are your influences?

I am influenced by everything that happens in my immediate surroundings including music, my mind, my thoughts,  my neighbors, and all that happens in the outside world. There’s so much that I would like to respond  to  and express because a lot is always going on! That alone drives me to work as much as I can and I know that I can never really catch up with it all. Some of the artists whose work I’ve admired and have been inspired by are Hillary Harkness, Cindy Sherman, Helen Frankenthaler, Georgia O’Keefe, Alice Neel, Lucien Freud, Henri Matisse, Christo, Fernand Leger, David Hockney, Faith Ringgold, Lee Bontecou, and Dr.Seuss and there are so many others too!

What was your inspiration for

Denmark

?

It was nearing the holidays, and I was thinking about places that might look beautiful in the winter. A friend of mine had gone to an artist residency in Denmark, so as I was painting I was thinking about that, and then my mind wandered and I began thinking about Danish styles; like Danish Modern and of the fabrics that my grandmother had in her home from the 1950s, and “Denmark” became realized. I also found out that Copenhagen is the licorice capitol of the world, and licorice is my favorite candy, and do you know those pretty colorful licorices that comes in all sorts of shapes? I was thinking about those too.

Describe your creative process?

It is pretty much as I described about my inspiration for Denmark, the painting. I enter my studio with an idea or ideas, and pull out some canvas or paper or art board, and depending on what is my impetus, I’ll intuitively choose colors that I think will match the mood so to speak and I’ll begin with shapes of color and then line, et cetera. Unless I am working on a portrait, or something representational, and in that case I will draw out my idea on the canvas or board, sometimes with a pen and ink and make a line drawing that I have to color within. It is not the same every day and I love the excitement of going in with one idea and coming away with something surprising that I hadn’t expected! That said, I can get pretty obsessed with a shape or idea and run with it for a very long time!

What are you working on currently?

Ahhh, that’s almost a secret but I’ll tell you anyway. It’s a series that brings me back to slightly earlier days, and I am using a symbol that I repeat and change on each painting. It’s fun and colorful and happy.

What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

My primary goals as an artist are to make authentic and honest work, and to be true to my artistic visions. I’d also like to have gallery representation,  have my work in museum exhibitions, and have my work acquired by leading foundations and museums. I would to travel the world to lots of countries, meet new people and paint from those enriching experiences. I love every moment of creating and as much as I enjoy working, I am truly delighted and feel fulfilled when folks respond to my work and appreciate it well enough to acquire it because it speaks to them. So I guess I would love more of that :) Do you think that’s asking for too much?

Where can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc)?

They can see my work at https://www.jayealison.com and soon it will be on singulart.com

I respond quickly to any interested folks. They can also come to my studio/gallery in the Southern Berkshires  at  7 New Hartford Road in Sandisfield, Massachusetts.