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contact name: Janelle Christensen
phone: 612-916-0832
email: janellechristen@gmail.com

mailing address:
731 21st Ave.
Minneapolis MN 55454

Janelle Christensen's Artist Statement
Drawing for me is a process of
introspection and healing. My work focuses on the death of my mother
and the loss that I've undergone since then. I was 17 and a senior
in high school when my mother, father, and I were in a crash on
Highway 2 heading East, near Proctor, MN. In that car crash our
mini-van was destroyed, and my father and I survived, my mother did
not sustain injuries and unfortunately passed away. In that brief
moment my life changed drastically and since then I have devoted time
to remember my mother and the person I recall her to be prior to the
crash. Since that time I have come to realize for better or worse how
much my family and I have changed.

Because of the personal changes I have
gone through since the accident, for my senior show I chose to create
a series of paintings of my family that continue to haunt me but
painted from a perspective of recalling them before the crash. My
mother is a central and constant force in my heart but in my dreams I
cannot see her face nor hear her voice.

There is a lot
about me that I don't recognize from my former self. In my mind it
creates a struggle over who I was and who I am now. The way that my
grief has shaped the person who exists today is both something that I
am grateful for as well as something I am ashamed of. My work
reflects the personal impact this event has had on me. As my world
was torn apart so was I. Its taken a lot of work to make progress in
stitching myself back together again. The faceless figures that I
have created may someday gain their faces, voices, and personalities
back again as I continue to investigate the loss through my art.





Janelle Christensen's Artist Bio
Janelle Christensen is an artist based
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work explores the grief and loss of
losing a loved one through ink on canvas. In the fall of 2007 she
was involved in a major automobile accident, during which her mother
was killed and her father seriously injured. The trauma from those
events as well as the loss of her mother have prompted her to
investigate the systemic loss, grief, anger, and sadness. As a woman
who suffers from anxiety, depression, and insomnia, she believes in
the continued expression and creation of those feelings in hopes of
overcoming and someday inspiring others to do the same.


 

Country of Citizenship:
United States

Birth Place:
Bemidji, MN

Birth Date:
May 3, 1990

Gender:
Female

Active Place:
Seward

Minnesota County:
Hennepin

Ink Artist