Location : United States
Artist Statement: Jen Dacota


When I saw my MRI and the “big black hole” where part of my brain used to be, I thought, “Perhaps painting could help stimulate the areas of my brain that had become damaged in my hemorrhagic occipital stroke?” Therefore while in recovery I began painting as a sort of “self imposed therapy”. My previous employment as a Physical Therapy Assistant had sparked this very useful idea.

As a young teen I found solace in art. I was good at it. I enjoyed the colors and textures. In college I studied art education but life happens. Life was full before my stroke working with my husband and raising my three girls. Even though I wasn’t creating art at the time I always appreciated the intrinsic beauty in the every day. I was one of those people who would get struck with creative vision and would look to repurpose items into something new. You could find me at salvage yards, in thrift stores and even at the occasional dumpster.

When starting over as a visual artist with a disability I began with what I knew. My first few works were painted in acrylic and were copies of interesting images that I had found. Even though I had a new creative outlet I was ultimately dissatisfied with the outcome. I had desired to produce a realistic copy of what I had seen and was failing. I realized however the kind of brain damage that I have was hindering this process. All of the emotions that were built up in me, from my stroke and my inability to connect with my art, were clamoring to escape. So I put away the books and magazines with dazzling images and turned on some lively music and just began to paint. The disappointment I was feeling just melted away. Painting has caused me to learn a few things about myself; that I am an emotional person and producing art helps me to connect with my emotions.

Artists are always trying new things. Sometimes this is out of frustration and other times out of curiosity. I switched to using oil paint rather than acrylic. I find oil to be more fluid and versatile. I stretched yet again to adding roofing tar as a new medium to my oil paintings. I have experimented with using it as a primer for the canvas and painting on top of the tar, as well as mixing it in with the oil paint. The tar is dark yet I find it adds dimension to my work. Lately I have been experimenting with adding dyes to my canvases, in addition to resists, and of course my oil paints. This is a multi step process that I have developed, but the end result is a loose and intuitively painted work, which is ‘created’ during the process.