Jean Cherouny: Active Expressionism
Aruba-based artist Jean Cherouny creates brightly colored, visually dynamic paintings centered on speed, texture, line and form. Through her kinesthetic awareness, Jean combines her sight, mind and body to develop a new painting style that she calls Active Expressionism.
How did your creative journey begin?
My creative journey began as an active child. I have a brain that thinks in colors and uses movement as inspiration for my rollerblade painting style which I apply to make large and small abstract paintings. In my art lessons as a young student I loved creating pictures with color spreading over the surface. Although I studied art in college and loved portraiture and landscape painting, I used this practice to innovate and transition into my own style of painting that I call Active Expressionism. Because of my athleticism, I literally skate across the canvas with paint and use wheels as my paintbrush.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Moving and making art has interested me for most of my life. When I entered grade school, I was a ballet dancer and had a love for knitting. My kinesthetic awareness made me curious about how my eye, mind and body bring paint and movement together to create something new. At the University of Vermont, where I created large paintings of futuristic bike racers, I discovered my visual expression in color and form while competing at skiing and biking internationally. Now, I am an internationally known rollerblade painter.
In graduate school an injury made me reconsider what it meant for me to paint authentically. I woke up one day and discovered rollerblade painting in my garage because I wanted a new wellness experience. While using my rollerblades to play with colors, I felt connected with wheels as a source of not only movement but creativity. Flowing paint strokes brings an awareness to my being cultivating my body's confidence to trust my desired images.
Large-scale rollerblade paintings, first executed in 2008, as well as smaller-scale “wheel works,” all go beyond the brush and extend into my identity as an athlete using my wheels as a vehicle of inspiration. My paintings are brightly colored, visually dynamic series of emotional phases induced by painting with speed, texture, line and form. As a painting practice I transcend technical innovation giving a unique texture to the forms that speak to a new dimension of my human nature and visual art.
How has your work shifted and evolved over time?
My art began in Connecticut as a child taking art lessons. In middle school and high school my interests in art began to grow. I discovered pastels and shading. In college I had great art professors who inspired me. At age 40 I went to graduate school to pursue my dreams of becoming a professional artist. This became the foundation for my creativity in the Czech Republic doing residencies where I experimented with many tools and materials. When I began showing my art during the pandemic in many diffrent places, I gained high visibility. I then decided to move to the Street Art Capital of the Caribbean, San Nicolas, Aruba for an opportunity to have my art be seen in the context of street art.
The active nature of graffiti art has always made me curious about who was doing art in a form I call active expressionism. It was during graduate school when I invented my style of rollerblade art after having had a great deal of success as an athlete and a young artist in college. I felt the desire growing in me to be a woman creating something entirely new and different.
Making my paintings look beautiful and intriguing involves skill and balance. I stretch my physicality and my mind to make each new painting unique. Lately, I have noticed people saying how my style is known for its color and energy.
What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your art practice grown or changed?
I love starting my day with a cup of coffee and a rollerblade skate. It is so free and relaxing to feel my body move. Then I move to making sketches of potential designs in the morning to set the tone of my creative expression. I have been talking to clients and making paintings that are of their favorite colors seeing things in layers very quickly. Much in the same way I imagine other abstract expressionists thinking that they know the outcome but arrive at the final image slowly. In front of the painting later in the day I cover the canvas with an idea of what the final five layers will be. A painting has a language and a structure so my day is spent knowing that I have a good grasp of the layers and colors I choose. It’s a craft and a way of life really. I let things dry and then apply more paint. I have just recently learned tricks to layering in my workshops that build the paint layers as they dry. I might read and listen to music during the day before a nice walk on the beach to catch the sunset over the ocean.
The street and a room with nice light in it activates my creative mind. The light is everything when I am layering colors. I feel fortunate to be able to witness this. I do not just paint all of the time. I love interacting with people. Doing art workshops and selling my art is important to me. Art is inclusive, not exclusive, so when people see my art in the gallery I want them to feel energetic and connected. Teaching people how to use my wheel brushes by way of demonstration helps me feed my creativity.
Which experiences have impacted your work as an artist?
Being an athlete, taking risks and continuing my art education impacted who I am as an artist today. I saw the power in using my body to express myself after my professional experiences as a mountain biker and ski racer. I became a mom of two beautiful girls who also inspired me. But, then I had to ask how I could keep being an inspiration to them as they grew up and did interesting things.
Color and nature are involved in my work from being a landscape painter for many years. I observe nature and light constantly so I can use it to layer my paints on the canvas. When I move on the canvas, I feel free and alive like nature. Other artists interest me and I like to be in a relationship with them constantly on a visual plane.
I create art in many visual and virtual media both traditional and new. Inspired by 20th century painters Jackson Pollock, Rebecca Purdum and Mark Rothko the Abstract Expressionists were also called “action painters''. Knowing how Pollock energetically threw and dripped, how Purdum paints with hands and figures, taking work far beyond the capabilities of traditional brushwork, reveals the connection to my 21st century work.
How has social media impacted your art career?
Social media is huge. I love to create videos about my art and share with my followers. People like to get to know me and my approach to art through social media. It helps generate interest in selling my art. Social media has also become a medium to connect with other artists who are pushing the edge of abstraction.
What are your future goals and aspirations?
I aspire to be recognized for my style of painting in art circles around the world as an innovative female artist. Living off my art allows me to be committed to my vision. My art is now being seen and sold through commissions all over the world. People now see me as a visionary artist because I have really evolved my process.
Recently at the ArtisA Gallery in San Nicolas, Aruba, people were posing in front of my painting called “Community” which is 109 inches by 73 inches. A set of my rollerblades were on display in front of the painting on the floor. They were trying them on and pretending they had made the painting. I loved this! They were being so joyful about who I am as an artist. I feel that here in Aruba people really understand my work because they think it is fun.
I like my paintings to have complexity as well. My goals for my art are to continue to create deeper layered and soulful images that show new dimensions in my thoughts over time. I wish for people to look back over my work one day and see my journey finding my deepest sense of self in my art.
Website: jeancherounyfineart.com / Instagram: @jean_cherouny