pump project art complex

Is America okay? Will I be famous? What is art for?

Artists create to quiet the ceaseless chatter

Artists Jan Middleton Roset and Nathan Jensen will be exhibiting together at the Pump Project Art Complex in a show titled, “The Colorful Ceaseless Chatter”.

Their work couldn’t be more different. Roset’s oil paintings are richly colored abstractions composed of energized and passionate brushwork. Jensen’s are also intensely colored, but are representational in nature depicting soulful, emotional characters in beautiful distortion. What Roset and Jensen share is a 20 year parallel professional past as artists in Austin, TX and a commonality in their creative processes and purposes for creating art.

In the Buddhist tradition, meditation is key to enlightenment, one must quiet the ceaseless chattering of the monkey brain. For Roset and for Jensen, painting is a form of meditation. Well practiced hands beat out rh ythms of brushstrokes and the ceaseless chatter becomes visual upon their canvases and relaxation and focus is achieved. Music is important and vital in their procedure to the provoke the energy of their brushwork and flow. They each are conscious and specific about their use of color – both knowledgeable of its effect on mood and visual accord.

Roset and Jensen first met in an advanced painting class at the University of Texas in Austin. Both were 1990 graduates of the College of Fine Arts. Each became heavily involved with nonprofit arts organizations – Roset the Artists Coalition of Austin, Jensen the Austin Visual Arts Association. They’ve each been involved with group studios – Roset – the Guadalupe Arts Center (formerly the ARTplex) and Jensen the ARTHive. Each experienced said studios burning down. Each have been involved with children’s books.