Jana Marie
Jana Marie Cariddi (she/her) is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin, where she has been granted a full scholarship to obtain her master’s degree in painting. Originally from New Jersey, Cariddi has been living nomadically and making paintings for the past 8 years. She received her BFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia in 2015. Since graduating with her BFA, Cariddi has lived in New Orleans and Berlin, Germany where she has completed two artist residencies: TAKT Kunstprojektraum and GlögauAir. In addition, she has traveled to Kumamoto prefecture in Japan where she was granted a fully funded 50-day artist residency where she studied the small village of Ubuyama and created paintings to support the region’s tourism. Cariddi has worked as an English teacher, creative ambassador for Bombay Sapphire Deutschland, freelancer, and is currently an advanced drawing instructor for UW undergraduate art majors. Her work is part of Savannah College of Art and Design’s private collections, as well as individual private collections in North America, Japan, and Europe.
“Moon Sets the Stars on Fire”
“Between my ears, soft worlds coagulate and emerge. My interest lies in transforming emotions and experiences into mock worlds that mirror our own, creating psychological realms that are almost palpable, and then turning them on their belly.”
“Magenta Mollusca”
“My process begins with intuitive drawing. The immediacy of this approach allows me to filter internal dialogue, sift through my personal experiences, and reconstruct memories. This process sustains my imagination and informs the worlds that I generate. In the creation of these spaces, it is important for me to consider the body on a physical level as well as a psychological level. Visually muddling the relationship between mind and body represents how the two are intrinsically linked. At what point do they coalesce?”
“I’m Being Followed by a Moon Shadow”
“Assimilating personal narratives through visualization is how each world is constructed. Through drawing, I can intuitively conjure a pictorial space from memory and partial recall, where feeling takes precedence over logic. After discovering a drawing that resonates, the process becomes methodical and meticulous. Thorough planning and precision-based techniques, such as masking, airbrushing, and building up layers of thin paint to create brushless color fields, result in careful construction. The particularity of my craft symbolizes my desire to rationalize, control, and redefine anxieties and traumas.”
“Lover’s Spit”
“The paintings’ slow execution allows me to reflect on my desires and their embedded meaning and I consider each step as a necessity in capturing the image. The process feels like my own personal scientific system, which is echoed in the imagery. With no solid evidence or answers, this simulated science is irresponsible and murky, leaving theories open to the viewer. Waning crescents, burning gates, and sunbursts serve as symbolic elements of a personal phenomenon.”
“Two Souls”
“Mister Missy”
“In my paintings, everything is becoming, each space is part of an ambiguous operation. Just like our bodies, each painted form is kinetic and hard at work; objects leak, caress, fertilize, burn, and morph. Bodily systems such as menstruation, fertility, and secretions are often societally silenced and viewed as perverse. In my soft realms, they are the mystifying ruling principles. Through form, color, space, and texture I hope to magnetize you into my somatic world, and by inviting you to momentarily live inside me, I hope to spawn wonder inside you.”
-Jana Marie, 2023