Turnip Green’s February 2022 Green Gallery exhibition was “The Thin Place”, featuring the art of Janelle Faiman and Kelley Rice. “The Thin Place” explored the places where the veil between this world and the next is thin, allowing us to walk between worlds and experience a new way of seeing.
Continue on to read Iz’s interview of artist Janelle Faiman.
Janelle Faiman, Supernova, 36”x48”, Acrylic and Spraypaint on Canvas.
Iz: When do you think you would have started describing yourself as an artist? Do you have any core memories from when you started visual art and any other mediums that you practice that helped solidify this feeling and drive?
Janelle: Great question. Thank you. Okay, so first of all, painting for me is brand new. I've only started painting very recently. So my first medium is writing. I started writing poems when I was eight. Then I started songwriting when I started playing the guitar at age 16 and then I came to Nashville to be a songwriter and a musician. So I did music for a long time. And then the thing about creativity is eventually it just starts bleeding out into other things. And so I started painting as a way to deal with and process things. My best friend died of cancer at age 36, and I was also processing a near-death experience that I had when I was 12. That I didn't really process for about 23 years, and I found painting and the visual part of painting really connects me into something that I feel that I have to go through, I guess the process of painting brings up history.
Iz: So I noticed that your paintings currently at Turnip Green are centered around the Vesica Piscis. Is that your inspiration for just this show, or is that been a long focus of your work?
Janelle: So I was drawing the Vesica Piscis on my desk one day, and then I drew it on my hand and my friend saw it and she said, Oh, you're drawing the Vesica Piscis. And I said, What's that? She said look it up. And so then I did, I went down a very long rabbit hole of the Vesica Piscis, which is a very historical icon and it has deep deep roots in religion, and also in like mathematics and geometry. And so the Vesica Piscis is two circles intersecting at each of their radii, right. So every other shape comes out of that. And so there's sacred geometry with that as the basis if that's something that speaks to you, sacred geometry. You know, think of the flower of life. The flower of life is actually made from the Vesica Piscis repeating itself. That is actually made from one circle. So, you know, there's so much history and meaning behind it all. You know, and then also, the Vesica Piscis is very feminine in nature or historically has been thought of that way because it's rounded. Also where the two circles intersect could look very much like a womb and it's very feminine in nature. And so there's a lot of like, for me divine femininity with the Vesica Piscis, and I just became obsessed with the symbol, basically. Yeah, I started painting it and I found the whole process to be very meditative and calming. You know, you also have two things intersecting and so, therefore, you have two becoming three, right you have the very center is the spark of creativity itself. It's two things becoming three which is the creative process. Right? Something coming out of something else. And so you know, and you also have, you know, these two opposites where we realize that everything is actually connected with life. Life and death and you know, all the dualities in those two circles, and then they merge together. And you see this visual representation. So, yeah, I painted it for this project, and this wasn't, you know, I didn't know I was doing it, but I kept painting it over and over. And so that's how it became a bunch of paintings. And now I'm actually kind of doing something else. So I don't know. I don't know if I'll continue to paint them. I probably will. Because I really love the shape and it speaks to me.
Iz: How has painting the Vesica Piscis and meditating on that influenced your own perception of your femininity?
Janelle: Yeah, well, that's a huge question. And the Vesica Piscis is probably my best definition of my own femininity. So you know, I'm 38. And to me personally, it took me a very long time to come into my own femininity. Growing up, I was a tomboy so I never felt that part of myself. Because we're taught what femininity is, right? We're shown this very small box that femininity is, and we now know that those boxes exist, and that actual femininity, is a million things and how we portray ourselves and how we feel it. So I would say that was definitely drawn to it because that's my path and I'm very much used to discovering myself because I shut it off for a long time because you know, at first you’re just like growing into who you are, but because I felt very distinct from that part because when I was shown was what a woman is supposed to look like, isn't something that I felt identified with. Now things are great. Things are getting so much better. Yeah, that's a whole other conversation about the fact that gender doesn't exist, but yeah. Yeah, so I think the best way is, this is like my, that's like, the top of my mountain and we're very cool.
Iz: How would you describe your artistic lens? What are the factors such as relationships, places you've lived in experiences you've had that shape your purpose for creating?
Janelle: Everything, everything all the time. I am inspired by life. So if you know me, you have probably become some sort of artist. Whether it's filmmaking, painting, writing, I just think like, you know, I create to get through life. I think I create to process everything that happens.
Iz: Could you explain your process of moving to Nashville, and also, do you feel like living here has impacted your artistic lens?
Janelle: 100%. I graduated from college in Minnesota. I packed up my car like every other person and moved to Nashville. Yeah, I grew up here. So I've lived 15 years of my life here, which is, you know, near half of my life. And so, yeah, like, growing up here and being surrounded in this community, you know, with musicians that I have been with, you know, I'm incredibly lucky. I've had amazing experiences. None of that would have been possible without moving here.
Iz: Do you have any music on Spotify or on other streaming services?
Janelle: Yeah, I do. So here's my plug. Okay. It's my artist music name is Fimone. It's the original spelling and pronunciation of my last name. My father's family came from Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic. And they were bohemian. And that is the original spelling. That is the artist name that I play under.
Iz: Do you feel like living in Minnesota affected your artistic lens?
Janelle: Minnesota birthed me and it held me in a very sweet embrace. I grew up on 80 acres in the prairie land of Minnesota and you know, I grew up with everything I ever needed. Some of the things that I wanted. Like Laura Ingalls Wilder in Minnesota. So, you know, I'd like left the nest. So Minnesota feels like a safe place.
Iz: Do you have any practices, environmental practices that you feel help connect you with the land?
Janelle: Yeah, yeah. I have an outdoor garden. For a couple of years. It's great. You should always be outside. You should always take your socks off and you should walk outside barefoot. I definitely feel connected to the land, especially my homeland in Minnesota. There's something very sacred and special about it. It's been in my family for 100 years.
Iz: So I already had my interview with Kelly. And she told me that you guys got along really beautifully, which is so great. I'm glad that like you guys were able to get along so well on first meeting and everything. Do you feel like you have a different experience when you perform: when you're doing a solo performance or performing with others or what's the experience like when you're like doing a gallery with other people, as compared to doing a solo concert or a solo gallery?
Janelle: I think that they are two completely different things and each of them carries its own particular strengths. Collaboration is a beautiful, amazing thing. By the nature of two things coming together, like the best devices, we're gonna have creativity. So collaboration is amazing. Yeah, because there's another brain that's not yours. And so by the very nature of that way to create something that you wouldn't have on your own. So yeah, you know, there are few things in life that are more gratifying than playing music, with other people and being on the same frequency. And gallery shows, well, I've only ever done a few gallery shows, so I like to do it collaboratively. It was great to be here. We had a lot of things in common and it was sort of like, Oh, I see that the universe just decided to put us together. It was great art complementing each other. You know, they're very different. But yet they like worked together. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Solo. Solo is its own thing. You know, there's definitely time for introspection, and, and like, Solo is like you're putting yourself out there and totally you there's nobody else to fall back on to blame. It's like you and you alone. I think one should build up their capacity to like, go in alone. Then learn how to collaborate. I think that's like a really strong foundation.
Iz: Could you share a story of a performance or experience in a gallery showing that was of deep importance to you?
Janelle: Well, I don't really have enough gallery experience to go by. And I will say I don't know why this came to my mind. One of my favorite memories of being at an art museum is being with my wife, who is a trained oil painter. She went to undergrad for oil painting. She doesn't paint much anymore, she works in diversity, equity, and inclusion. But we were at this museum. I had never seen a Kandinsky piece before and she was looking at it and I walk a little walk up to her and she goes oh, this is Kandinsky. He's the reason why started to paint because I saw his paintings and was like, wow, I didn't even know you could paint like that. And I love that moment because I was like, that was the epitome of what art strives to do, which is to inspire other people, right? Like, it was just beautiful.
Iz: Do you have any other shows or gallery stuff coming up?
Janelle: I’m at Nashville State right now for their collaboration with Turnip Green, and then I have a show at Lipstick Lounge on March 25th.