Jolene Olivier

Jolene started again after a long break from art. An overly conceptual art degree killed her love for making but after years of mothering multiple children and endless chores, she got desperate to produce something permanent as evidence that she had existed. Plants make good models and she loves them.

Stylistically, she is drawn to lines. For her, the language of line in itself speaks of aspects of being. Thus many or minimal, fine or bold, short and abrupt strokes or long flowing lines are contrasted in mediums of ink, pencil, charcoal or watercolour. They are drawn fast or slowly, tentatively or sure. With an eye for detail & almost obsessive tendency towards observation, she has chosen characteristics of plants to engage with, among other themes, their cultural associations, history/symbolism combined with her own meaning making. The work has a gentle presence, yet sometimes draws attention to the often unnoticed or even avoided ‘ugly’, decaying or dead. The harshness, fleetingness or fragility of life is meditated upon & alluded to as she explores, for example, thistles and thorns. She is aiming to explore these ideas, life cycles and also the inclusion of human figures in her next works.