We’re catching up with Jen DeLuna as she celebrates a new career milestone — her New York solo debut exhibition, “Dust and Sweat and Feigning Grace,” at Storage Art Gallery in Tribeca. Her evocative paintings draw on a rich archive of found and family photographs, a process we explore below as we revisit her time at Carnegie Mellon and discuss the evolution of her practice, her inspirations, and her journey from student to professional artist.
1
How did you arrive at painting from found photographs?
A lot of my interest in found photographs really started at CMU with the Pittsburgh Center For Creative Reuse. It’s like a thrift store for arts and crafts supplies, and they have boxes and boxes of found photos. I love them as a source for inspiration because these are photos that people are taking to memorialize a moment. Sometimes there’s an image that truly captures a feeling — it has an interesting composition, or the colors or something about it draws me in. Another thing with film photos or older digital photos, prior to when people were more comfortable taking photos with their phone, is that there’s a different visual language. I really like the bright flashes of light and the harsh shadows. There’s an awkwardness to the way in which people take family photos, and there are tropes, like photos of a baby being bathed in the sink. So in my work, I’m thinking a lot about that feeling of a memory, and the fact that it’s both in motion — it’s fading — but those highlights create the sense of stillness. So there’s tension between moving and still.
2
Tell us about your paintings for “Dust and Sweat and Feigning Grace.”
Almost all of them were made specifically for the exhibition. They gave me free rein and the space to explore the different ideas I was having, so it was very self-led. I was exploring themes of intimacy and vulnerability — examining both the place of dogs and the place that women hold in terms of domesticity. Having the contrast between aggressive or attacking dogs and the serenity of the women, I hope the audience thinks of both in their mind at the same time.
3
How has your practice continued to evolve since graduating?
CMU really taught me to think about art in a different way. Now I spend so much of the time that it takes to make an artwork thinking about ‘Why am I making it? Why is it important to me or to others? How does it fit within a bigger context?’ I’m painting the same images that I’ve been painting since college, but just in different ways, because I love how it makes me feel. The work that I made at CMU was much more colorful and very texture based. It was about experimentation, which is still really important to me, but I was working a lot more with acrylic.
Jen DeLuna in her independent student studio at CMU.
I remember I once painted something right before critique, because I had another huge painting that I was super excited about, but it was so ugly. I had to do something else. I had a photo that I just painted really quickly from like 6am to 8:30am and brought into class still completely wet. My professor at the time, Devan Shimoyama, was like, ‘This is it! This is what you have to do.’ I captured the emotion that I wanted, but I didn’t feel like I could experiment with oil paint in a way that could satisfy me. I held onto that feeling until I couldn’t work with acrylic anymore.
4
How was your experience as co-director of The Frame Gallery?
The entire time I was at CMU, I was always very community oriented, and I found a lot of satisfaction in building those communities. I was co-director of The Frame during the pandemic, so it was very different and probably at a smaller scale than what we’re used to. But it was really great to provide an opportunity for other students to show their art. Being at the administrative level really helped me see the steps it takes to put on a show, to work with different bureaucracies — and to look at it from the application side. As the person who receives the applications, I wish I had known as a sophomore or junior that people weren’t putting themselves out there enough and that there wasn’t as much competition as I thought. I never applied for things because I thought I would never get it. So just go for it.
5
On that note, what advice do you have for students at the School of Art?
Stay true to what you really enjoy about making art. After I graduated, I spent a year not painting, and then I realized that was what really made me happy. If I wanted to do it, I should just put my full force behind it. So find what you love about art, and then don’t forget about it. Not everyone will like it, but someone will, and that’s enough. I think I had my ego death early in college, and so out in the real world getting rejections and being able to work past that is really important. Push yourself and believe enough in your work to keep on making it.
More from Jen DeLuna | jdeluna.com | @jen.deluna
“5 Questions” is an ongoing series by the School of Art that asks alumni who are transforming art, culture, and technology about their current work and time at Carnegie Mellon.