Can you share your earliest memories of engaging with art? What was the pivotal moment or experience that made you realize you wanted to pursue art professionally?
I was always drawing at a small table. In kindergarten, a teacher forbade me to make a wild collage of a hat. The hat would become a chicken.
At age six, ‘Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval’ in the South of France made a huge impression on me. A postman built this artwork for his daughter with stones he had collected on his post round for 33 years. To walk inside this unique castle made of little rocks was like being in a dream. Small things can become big when one’s heart is full.
.
In school, at age 10, we were presented a 200 francs note at school. The artist portrayed on it was James Ensor. His face and long beard intrigued me. We visited his studio and I was moved by the colorful and big wall painting ‘The entry of Christ into Brussels’.
The early memories of art are all connected to joyful emotions.
How would you describe the underlying philosophy or message behind your art? Are there particular themes or social issues that you feel compelled to address through your work?
Creating feels like being inside the moment. Time is slowing down. Something is happening. There is a flow. The sense of being closer to the stars.
Can you take us through your creative process from the initial spark of an idea to the completion of a piece? Do you follow a structured approach, or is your process more intuitive and spontaneous?
Layers - Time
Drawing is quick
Embroidery is slow
What are the primary sources of inspiration for your artwork? Are there specific artists, cultural movements, or personal experiences that have significantly shaped your creative vision?
Ikebana and Taichi. I started practicing Taichi five years ago. Taichi teaches me discipline and the ambition to concentrate longer. In meditation, I have learned to go deeper and to trust in the revealing of inner levels. In this way, the paintings are getting purer. They become more inner than outer experiences.
What mediums and techniques do you most frequently use in your artwork, and what draws you to them? Have you experimented with any unconventional materials or methods, and if so, what impact have they had on your work?
Embroidery fascinates me because it feels like dry paint. The layers and little stories are endless and too tiny to capture instantly. I like to touch. Pearls, silk, cotton, threads. I like being with these, in these, and also being in the middle of a specific puzzle, which is never done. Embroidery has painterly qualities, which are quite similar to paint. However, experimenting and playing with watercolor, oil paint, and spray paint is always tempting.
Recently I started to find the right spatiality of being inside oil paint.
How would you define your signature style? Are there particular motifs, color palettes, or visual elements that you consistently incorporate into your pieces? How did you develop this distinctive style?
Nature is important. I grew up in the countryside. Nature is always with me. Walking and playing in the field always gave me strength. I had a friend who lived on a farm. It was my favorite place. The days felt so long.
How has your artwork evolved over the years? Are there distinct phases or shifts in your style, themes, or techniques that mark different periods of your career? What prompted these changes?
The process is always continuing.
Trust in my sensitivity.
If you could create an alter- ego as an artist, what would their name be, and what kind of art would they create?
My alter ego would be my reverse name: Anaj. This child could be a fashion designer. Seeing people inside your creations would make me happy. The textile would become a movable and second skin. I can see it right in front of me.
If you could set up your art studio anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Describe what your dream studio would look like.
A studio by the sea.
If you could have any superpower to help you with your art, what would it be and how would you use it?
Magic to travel the world.
If you could visit any art movement in history, which one would you choose?
It would be fun to sit next to Jackson Pollock making his drippings. He also likes to be in the painting. There is no beginning and no end. He tries to make it live.
If your art were a type of food or dish, what would it be and why? How does this reflect your style or themes?
Chocolate
2024 Masterpiece interview Aylin Kumdagezer
I was always drawing at a small table. In kindergarten, a teacher forbade me to make a wild collage of a hat. The hat would become a chicken.
At age six, ‘Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval’ in the South of France made a huge impression on me. A postman built this artwork for his daughter with stones he had collected on his post round for 33 years. To walk inside this unique castle made of little rocks was like being in a dream. Small things can become big when one’s heart is full.
.
In school, at age 10, we were presented a 200 francs note at school. The artist portrayed on it was James Ensor. His face and long beard intrigued me. We visited his studio and I was moved by the colorful and big wall painting ‘The entry of Christ into Brussels’.
The early memories of art are all connected to joyful emotions.
How would you describe the underlying philosophy or message behind your art? Are there particular themes or social issues that you feel compelled to address through your work?
Creating feels like being inside the moment. Time is slowing down. Something is happening. There is a flow. The sense of being closer to the stars.
Can you take us through your creative process from the initial spark of an idea to the completion of a piece? Do you follow a structured approach, or is your process more intuitive and spontaneous?
Layers - Time
Drawing is quick
Embroidery is slow
What are the primary sources of inspiration for your artwork? Are there specific artists, cultural movements, or personal experiences that have significantly shaped your creative vision?
Ikebana and Taichi. I started practicing Taichi five years ago. Taichi teaches me discipline and the ambition to concentrate longer. In meditation, I have learned to go deeper and to trust in the revealing of inner levels. In this way, the paintings are getting purer. They become more inner than outer experiences.
What mediums and techniques do you most frequently use in your artwork, and what draws you to them? Have you experimented with any unconventional materials or methods, and if so, what impact have they had on your work?
Embroidery fascinates me because it feels like dry paint. The layers and little stories are endless and too tiny to capture instantly. I like to touch. Pearls, silk, cotton, threads. I like being with these, in these, and also being in the middle of a specific puzzle, which is never done. Embroidery has painterly qualities, which are quite similar to paint. However, experimenting and playing with watercolor, oil paint, and spray paint is always tempting.
Recently I started to find the right spatiality of being inside oil paint.
How would you define your signature style? Are there particular motifs, color palettes, or visual elements that you consistently incorporate into your pieces? How did you develop this distinctive style?
Nature is important. I grew up in the countryside. Nature is always with me. Walking and playing in the field always gave me strength. I had a friend who lived on a farm. It was my favorite place. The days felt so long.
How has your artwork evolved over the years? Are there distinct phases or shifts in your style, themes, or techniques that mark different periods of your career? What prompted these changes?
The process is always continuing.
Trust in my sensitivity.
If you could create an alter- ego as an artist, what would their name be, and what kind of art would they create?
My alter ego would be my reverse name: Anaj. This child could be a fashion designer. Seeing people inside your creations would make me happy. The textile would become a movable and second skin. I can see it right in front of me.
If you could set up your art studio anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Describe what your dream studio would look like.
A studio by the sea.
If you could have any superpower to help you with your art, what would it be and how would you use it?
Magic to travel the world.
If you could visit any art movement in history, which one would you choose?
It would be fun to sit next to Jackson Pollock making his drippings. He also likes to be in the painting. There is no beginning and no end. He tries to make it live.
If your art were a type of food or dish, what would it be and why? How does this reflect your style or themes?
Chocolate
2024 Masterpiece interview Aylin Kumdagezer
The surface of the water shimmers: each ripple becomes a miniature lens, bending and dispersing light in different directions. Colors shift from deep blues and greens to turquoise and aquamarine, then to light yellow and crimson red. Particles of salty water saturate the moist air, turning into pearls interwoven in the abstract seascapes of Jana Cordenier’s embroidery paintings. Tides, the second solo show of the Belgian artist at Galerie Michael Janssen, delves into the textural qualities of movement so vividly present in nature.
The desire to capture the dynamic essence of her surroundings contributes to Jana Cordenier‘s passion for working en plein air. Artmaking sessions in the open air resemble a symbolic ritual of becoming one with the landscape. ‚It‘s not like ‚me and nature.‘ It feels more like ‚the rock is me, the sea is me, the plant is — I’m the plant,‘ explains Cordenier. The artist refers to her paintings as ‚atmospheres‘: they represent experiences of the body and are aimed at triggering different senses. In her process, nature serves not only as inspiration but as a co-creator.
The concept behind Tides originated on a journey to Greece, during which the artist worked on an expansive drawing using a 10-meter roll of paper she brought with her. Placing it directly on the bare ground, she allowed it to absorb the earth‘s uneven texture, and be shaped by plants, branches, rocks, and other natural marks that would infuse the drawing with a living, dynamic character. The idea is not to sketch the landscape but to capture the essence of it through its material qualities. To convey the richness of color in her surroundings, Cordenier utilized watercolors, sometimes painting with a branch. For one drawing, she experimented with seawater: as the paper dried, the salt crys- tals added an extra-dimensional depth to its texture. This large-scale field work became the base for the pieces presented in the exhibition.
While Cordenier highly values the process of spontaneous collaboration with nature, the transition from drawing to painting unfolds in the studio, carefully overseen by the artist. In this space, she engages in the process of conceptual transformation of the landscape, opting for the medium of embroidery on canvas. Cordenier’s interest in embroidery was sparked by the search for an alternative to oil paint that could make her paintings lighter in both mass and materiality. To transform the patterns from her drawings, the artist employs transparent cotton, turning sporadic lines into subtle stitches. Hand-dyed silk imparts a sense of translucence to the works, metamorphosing the land- scape into an endless field replete with visual possibilities.
In her paintings, the Belgian artist experiments with scales and superimpositions, conceptually translating the imprints left by nature in her drawings into the delicate and sophisticated language of embroidery. Her captivating thread paintings vividly pulsate on the canvas, offering the viewer a unique tactile experience. A tapestry of textures creates a sense of movement and depth, with tangible stitches simulating the dynamic nature of the landscape.
Jana Cordenier’s Tides captures a moment in movement. Rhythmic and intuitive, her paintings ebb and flow, evoking the sensation of smooth pebbles gently rolling from the shore into the deep sea that shimmers under the afternoon sun.
Karina Abdusalamova
2024
The desire to capture the dynamic essence of her surroundings contributes to Jana Cordenier‘s passion for working en plein air. Artmaking sessions in the open air resemble a symbolic ritual of becoming one with the landscape. ‚It‘s not like ‚me and nature.‘ It feels more like ‚the rock is me, the sea is me, the plant is — I’m the plant,‘ explains Cordenier. The artist refers to her paintings as ‚atmospheres‘: they represent experiences of the body and are aimed at triggering different senses. In her process, nature serves not only as inspiration but as a co-creator.
The concept behind Tides originated on a journey to Greece, during which the artist worked on an expansive drawing using a 10-meter roll of paper she brought with her. Placing it directly on the bare ground, she allowed it to absorb the earth‘s uneven texture, and be shaped by plants, branches, rocks, and other natural marks that would infuse the drawing with a living, dynamic character. The idea is not to sketch the landscape but to capture the essence of it through its material qualities. To convey the richness of color in her surroundings, Cordenier utilized watercolors, sometimes painting with a branch. For one drawing, she experimented with seawater: as the paper dried, the salt crys- tals added an extra-dimensional depth to its texture. This large-scale field work became the base for the pieces presented in the exhibition.
While Cordenier highly values the process of spontaneous collaboration with nature, the transition from drawing to painting unfolds in the studio, carefully overseen by the artist. In this space, she engages in the process of conceptual transformation of the landscape, opting for the medium of embroidery on canvas. Cordenier’s interest in embroidery was sparked by the search for an alternative to oil paint that could make her paintings lighter in both mass and materiality. To transform the patterns from her drawings, the artist employs transparent cotton, turning sporadic lines into subtle stitches. Hand-dyed silk imparts a sense of translucence to the works, metamorphosing the land- scape into an endless field replete with visual possibilities.
In her paintings, the Belgian artist experiments with scales and superimpositions, conceptually translating the imprints left by nature in her drawings into the delicate and sophisticated language of embroidery. Her captivating thread paintings vividly pulsate on the canvas, offering the viewer a unique tactile experience. A tapestry of textures creates a sense of movement and depth, with tangible stitches simulating the dynamic nature of the landscape.
Jana Cordenier’s Tides captures a moment in movement. Rhythmic and intuitive, her paintings ebb and flow, evoking the sensation of smooth pebbles gently rolling from the shore into the deep sea that shimmers under the afternoon sun.
Karina Abdusalamova
2024
