Jennifer Mondfrans

Thematic Painter

At Least I Have You Portraits Journey of a Hero After Brassai Pop Portraits Binary Portraits Landscapes on Paper Contact Biography
Master of the Two Worlds
Journey of a Hero

At Least I Have You

In this ongoing painting series of historical women scientists, I explore the idea of individual memory transforming history. Each portrait integrates the scientist’s work and includes a fictive letter about their work in science and the challenges they faced. History is made through memory. By reading the letter, you remember who she is and her work is remembered. History becomes recast.

Vera Rubin Agnes Pockels Chien Shiung Wu Rosalind Franklin Irene Curie Marie Curie Barbara McClintock Emmy Noether Henrietta Swan Leavitt Kathleen Yardley Lonsdale Lise Meitner Maria Goeppert-Mayer Ada Lovelace Rita Levi-Montalcini

Portraits

Portraits of artists, dancers and actors I admire. Included are commissions I have done for patrons.

RBG Beauford Delaney Beatrix Potter Kathe Kollwitz Frida Looking Frida Smoking Frida Thinking Frida Unbraiding Jimi on Fire Elizabeth Taylor Steve McQueen Salvador Dali Pablo Picasso Carmen Armaya Alice Neel Louise Bourgeois Louise and Spider Frida's Crown John Shannon

Journey of a Hero

Inspired by Joseph Campbell, this series explores the idea of mythological archetypes, using a narrative of color and characters to create an emotional connection to the unconscious. Campbell defines myth as "an organization of symbolic forms, images, and narratives that are metaphoric of the possibilities of human experience and fulfillment in a given society at a given time.” The titles are from Campbell's book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The portraits are of people who have influenced my journey. And the figurative paintings are my friends as subjects, where we collaborated in a performative process to create scenes that convey the metaphoric possibilities of our own mythology.

Master of the Two Worlds Where we thought... The ogre-tyrant... For his passing and returning... Live! The essence of oneself... Thus lives the man of realization Life has no meaning... Returning to the root...

After Brassai

in the 1930s, the photographer Brassai would roam the streets of Paris at night, photographing the scenes played in public as well as the underground; from the brothels, to his artist and writer friends, who would become famous icons. These 20 paintings are Inspired by his exquisite black and white photographs. All work is oil on board, 12" x 16".

Peggy Guggenheim Henry Miller Red Hair Dancing Fireflies Brassai Les Savages Non Simone De Beauvoir Jean Prevert Alberto Giacometti Salvador Dali Samuel Beckett Warhols Dog Cloisters Matisse and Muse Bonjour Welcome After Melanie Jane

Pop Portraits

30 portraits of cultural influencers. Water-soluble wax pastel and acrylic on 18" x 24" canvas.

Coco Chanel Diane Diprima Mal Sharpe Edgar Degas Eduoard Manet Berthe Morisot Frank Sinatra Rosa Parks Steve McQueen John Lennon Paul Cezanne Claude Monet Simone DeBeauvoir Albert Camus Jimmy Carter Sinatra Louise Bourgeois Audrey Hepburn Alice Neel After Arbus Little-Edie Billie Holiday Robert Johnson Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington Holly-Go-Lightly Bluto Blutarsky Jean-Michel Basquiat Ted Rheingold David Hockney Chuck Close

Binary Portraits

Portraits of my friends overlaid with a binary code sentence that reveals a hidden truth about them.

Marc Newt Boyd Philip Mary Peter Tim Penelope Giovanni Ben Erika Polly Lenny Moss

Landscapes on Paper

Landscapes from Paia, Maui, where I visited in January 2017. Inspired from views of the oceanfront bungalow where I stayed, to the scenery of walking the mile of beach and trees through Baldwin State Park and in my exploration of the abandoned sugar cane factory. I wanted to capture the feeling of the wind and the waves and the ever-changing clouds and shadows of this beautiful place.

Day's end Three Two Blue twilight Red rocks twilight Pink waves Old sugar cane factory On the road Orange shadows Into the shadows Coral Beach fields gold Beach fields rose Red lane Pink road Over and around Soft waves Baby beach Red dirt wind Taken over