Hometown: Paterson, NJ
Current town: Highland Park, NJ
Profession: Artist and art instructor
Bio:
“Jill Caporlingua’s painting has progressed in stages over the past 25 years, from pure abstraction to classical drawing, but a continuous theme contemplating science and the human body forms a common thread. Most of her work is in acrylic and oils and utilizes a bold color palette.”
Upcoming and Current Projects:
-Several of Jill’s paintings are currently available for viewing and purchase at Gallery U in Red Bank, NJ. You can contact Director Robert Langdon for a private showing at 732-747-6696 or just stop by this wonderful gallery at 80 Broad Street, Red Bank, NJ. Jill will soon be in more of their upcoming exhibits. http://gallery-u.blogspot.com/
-Jill’s painting “Traffic” was chosen to be included in a limited edition book featuring selected winners of the “Art Takes Times Square Exhibit.” Publication date to be announced.
-Jill’s artwork is also in a book celebrating featured artists from the 2012 Brooklyn Art House Sketchbook Project and World Tour. Visit the Brooklyn Art Library, 103A N 3rd St, Brooklyn, NY 11249. Two of Jill’s books are in their permanent collection and are available for viewing at http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/gallerychaos/artwork.
Are you looking for something smaller than a full-size painting? Jill’s miniature paintings can now be purchased at locations across the country from the Art-O-Mat organization. Art-O-Mat uses vending machines to distributes small artworks to the public at a reasonable price.
Distribution of Jill’s Art-O-Mat paintings has reached 300, including locations at the Whitney Museum, The Smithsonian Institute, and the San Francisco Museum. Find one near you at http://www.artomat.org.
-Jill is also represented by Alfa Art Gallery. Alfa Art is located at 108 Church Street, New Brunswick, NJ, (732) 296-6720.
-The painting Blue Nude was chosen for the cover of the audio yoga CD, “Yoga For Cancer Survivors.” A great cause and a relaxing yoga CD. http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7855459
-Jills art is included in the HPAC 2013 calendar. This artist’s collective highlights the work of some of their members. Jill’s painting “Eat at Joe’s” is the design for the month of July 2013. The calendar can be purchased at Through the Moongate Gallery and Boutique in Highland Park http://www.throughthemoongate.com/, as well as other businesses and the Highland Park Library, 31 N 5th Ave Highland Park, NJ 08904.
-Jill’s painting is also on the cover of the Folk Rock CD Happy Joe, “Big Mouth.” Go to happyjoe.net for more details.
About My Work:
My work is an exploration: science, technology, the mysteries of the human body, and within these common themes, my overall quest to look for a deeper understanding of the world around us.
A degree in philosophy trained me to look below the surface layers of any given subject to search for hidden meaning. I now apply this analytical approach to painting. I went back to art school years later. Before that I was solely self-taught.
Most of my work is in acrylic and oils and utilizes a very bold, bright color palette.
Currently I am working on paintings that separate the color field into little boxes that to me represent microscopic slides or views of cells, bodily tissues, or views of natural materials under the microscope like leaves or dirt. I Google images and each square or rectangle is like a little painting. I started doing them on mid-sized canvases, around 18″x24″ and they are very time intensive because of all the detail I try to represent, but now I’ve moved to larger canvases.
I’ve always loved detail. I went through an 8 year period of painting tiny bead-like dots. This pointillism also was in my mind microscopic views of the world and often contains strands of “psuedo-DNA.” Most of my current work I call “pseudo-science” or my own invented “fake science” that I base on images I can find on the internet. The funny thing is I was frightened by science classes and never had the confidence in my ability, but now it has become my inspiration!
In art school artists spend a lot of time drawing the human body, the outer shell. Years ago a picture of an AIDS cell in TIME Magazine fascinated me. The colors were so beautiful and the abstract design so divine yet the knowledge of how deadly and devastating this cell could be struck me with awe. That’s when I first thought to go beneath the outer surface of the human body to explore what lies beneath our human shell. It’s something that unites us. In a world filled with war and strife, it’s a cliche but we are all “the same on the inside” as the old expression goes. So in a way my work is political and concerned with social issues, although it’s not obvious. It’s there in my process and beneath the surface of the ideas.
Dream Project:
My dream project is to make a huge painting with several panels of my microscopic views. Sometimes very small artworks are intimate and enticing, but there’s something about a large work that is very impressive. They’re larger than life, and larger than the viewer, which somehow makes them feel powerful to me when I stand before them. A huge work with many tiny paintings within it might have the intimate qualities of a miniature work, mixed with the dramatic experience of an oversized piece.
Current state of mind/what’s happening in my life:
Over the past year I’ve had to have two major hand surgeries. It’s been a challenge for an artist to lose access to the “instruments!” When my right (dominant) hand was immobilized, I taught myself to use the left hand, then I reversed the process. I tried to look at the upside of these challenges. Supposedly different parts of your creative mind are awakened when you use your non-dominant hand. That’s even an exercise in a lot of drawing classes.
Favorite Authors:
Fiction: Kurt Vonnegut, Christopher Moore, Tom Robbins, and Robert Rankin. I love really “far-out” there fiction. Crazy, creative use of words inspires my painting.
Non-fiction: I’ve been very into reading about Zen Philosophy lately. It’s one thing to say you’ll live “in the now” and it’s another thing to actually try to do it! To really be in the moment is a powerful thing for anyone, but I think it’s very helpful for the creative process. One of the funnier, but also inspiring books I’m reading right now is “The Dude and the Zen Master,” based on the character “Dude” from the Coen brothers film, “The Big Lebowski.” It’s a funny, interview style book that really makes you think.
Music:
I love so many types of music. I was actually a Classical Music major before my focus shifted exclusively to visual arts. Now I mostly go to original singer/songwriter shows. These talents are unsung musical heros, just like a lot of the struggling visual artists I know.
The last few shows I went to were Zigmund Bird, Thomas Martin with Jeannie O’Neil, and of course my husband, musician and writer Joe Canzano. I also love English singer/songwriter Ben Walker who I met in college years ago when he was an exchange student, but he’s now living and performing in Toronto. Support local music! They’re all worth looking up.
The last exhibit I attended was at Gallery U in Red Bank. Before that it was The New Jersey Arts Guild. I had pieces in both shows, but there were many other great artists’ work there. I try to get out to as many exhibits as possible to feed my inspiration.
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