| 'Painting
jointly, with a lot of joy'
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| By:
Michael Redmond, Lifestyle Editor, The
Princeton Packet |
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Members
of jFIVE preparing for the art show now on
exhibit in the West Windsor Library. From
left, Ursula Klostermyer, Margo Noisten,
Emily Townsend and Toshiko Nishikawa.
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No, jFIVE is not a rock band or a rap group,
although there are some parallels to be drawn.
jFIVE is a group of professional
painters from three continents, all residing in
the Princeton area. Each artist creates her own
individual artworks, of course. What's a little
unusual is that the group's members have begun
creating joint projects - that is, single
paintings created by multiple artists.
"We compare ourselves to a
rock band. While each of us is playing as an
individual, we're all making music together. It
goes beyond the fact that we're all painters; it's
more like multi-part harmony," said Emily
Townsend of West Windsor, an assistant professor
with the Visual Arts Department at Mercer County
Community College.
This approach does not exactly
conform to the stereotypes of the solitary painter
at work in a cold Parisian garret, or Michelangelo
toiling for months on a scaffold, inches from the
Sistine Chapel's ceiling. But judging from the
spectacular canvases on display throughout July in
the West Windsor Library, "multi-part
harmony" is working for jFIVE.
On display in the library's
gallery are only five works - big works, the
largest among them measuring 4 feet high by 8 feet
wide. They are titled "Water World,"
"Spring Bloom," "Yellow
Swing," "Jazz," and "Red
Improvisation." Each painting is a distinctly
different explosion of color, texture and form.
With reservations, the group
describes its joint style as "abstract
expressionist," a post-war modernist style
which has been defined as embodying "an
approach that involves complete freedom from all
traditional esthetic and social values in favor of
free, spontaneous personal expression."
However, not all paintings in the style are 100
percent abstract and/or 100 percent expressionist,
and this is true for jFIVE's canvases, some of
which incorporate imagery.
"It's not that we chose
abstract expressionism," said Ursula
Klostermyer of Belle Mead. "We just started
painting together, and this was the language that
we found ourselves communicating in."
"That's right," agreed
Toshiko Nishikawa of Princeton. "It just came
out."
One advantage of the group
process, according to Margo Noisten of Skillman,
is that "we never get stuck. One of us always
comes up with an idea."
The members of jFIVE - Jill
Bronson of Hopewell, Ursula Klostermyer, Toshiko
Nishikawa, Margo Noisten and Emily Townsend -
met in the fall of 2000 through the Princeton
Newcomers Club. Ms. Bronson and Ms. Townsend are
natives of the United States; Ms. Nishikawa is
from Japan, and Ms. Klostermyer and Ms. Noisten
are from Germany.
Despite the diversity of
backgrounds, there was something like a instant
"click" among the painters, each of whom
has exhibited professionally. Works by jFIVE
members have been seen at museum shows and
galleries in places as far-flung as Munich,
Frankfurt and Tokyo, as well as California,
Florida, Indiana and Maryland.
What does jFive signify?
"Well, there are five of
us, and it's a play on the 'j' sound that unites
two Germans, a Japanese, and a Jewish-American,
painting jointly with a lot of joy," Ms.
Townsend grinned.
The West Windsor Library show is
jFIVE's first. The canvases on display are the
creations of all members except for Ms. Benson,
who has been concentrating on her individual work.
In the future, jFIVE plans to do a showcase of
members' solo works, with Ms. Benson
participating.
"Our individual painting
careers continue, just as before," Ms.
Klostermyer said.
So how does the group process
work?
"We spend a lot of time
just looking," Ms. Townsend replied.
"One time I took a big
square canvas and divided it into four equal
parts. We were all looking at it, then I walked up
and painted a big circle over the four rectangles.
Toshiko gasped. She had had the same idea, at the
same time. We've had many similar experiences. We
don't need words, it just happens."
But surely disagreements arise,
now and then?
"We do disagree but we
never fight. We work through it," Ms.
Townsend said. Ms. Nishikawa concurred:
"Sometimes we just keep on painting until
we're all happy."
Ms. Klostermyer and Ms. Noisten
have had previous experience with painting groups
in Germany. "It gave me so much energy, it
was a nice experience," said Ms. Noisten.
"As individual artists, we are very
different. But you get a feeling when you can work
with other artists. You just do."
The jFIVE exhibition will be up throughout July in
the West Windsor Library, located at 333 North
Post Road. The library is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5
p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and from 9:30 a.m. to
9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The library can
be reached by calling (609) 799-0462.
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