Jessica Stölen
Editor
jstolen-jacobson@cherryroad.com

Montevideo area artist Zak Jahn is currently displaying his artwork in the Blue Tin Gallery at Bluenose Gopher Public House. Jahn’s work centers on acrylic on canvas, with an abstract appeal with some ink involved.

“I work in phases, so a couple of these pieces are actually two or three years old,” he explained at his artists reception Saturday evening. “I didn’t like them and so I returned to them later and now really enjoy them.”

His inspiration for the imagery he incorporates comes from Joseph Campbell’s literary theory. “It’s a lot of that kind of stuff mixed in with some tarot symbolism,” he says. “One thing that I try to enforce is that I don’t sign them anymore. I used to sign my pieces where I thought they should be signed, but I feel that they can all be rotated and you can find different images as you move them. It’s in the eye of the beholder so I feel like I shouldn’t take th liberty of deciding what they look like once they’re done.”

Jahn began painting three years ago under encouragement from the owners of Java River in Montevideo. “They’ve been very influential in helping me to become more active in the arts community,” he says. “I was really into poetry and fiction and I didn’t feel like I was expressing myself very well with it. I started painting and I felt better. I started with watercolor because it was very approachable but as I learned more about acrylic I realized its more accessible.”

Jahn doesn’t use a lot of brushes to paint. “I paint with objects – I use the tops of candles to paint with a lot. I throw it across the room. I live alone which is a good thing because if I didn’t I think people would be mad at me because there’s paint everywhere,” he says. He also dabbles some in collage work.

“I’m a perfectionist, myself, so this kind of started as a therapy to combat that, to stop trying to be perfect. I would try to be photorealistic but I can’t – I don’t know how. So on this journey of working with mixed media and trying to be less perfection, I learned I need to let loose, and be less literal,” he said.

Jahn, who works teaching shop at the Minnesota Valley Area Learning Center, has found ways to incorporate his art into his career as well. “I’ve been able to teach art, not officially, but most of my class does involve art. I try to get kids involved with art. A lot of self image work goes into that, so teaching the kids how to identify their own self image and put it on paper,” he says. For him, self expression is an important part of the artistic process. “Young people don’t get a lot of opportunities to express themselves organically. A lot of it goes on the internet and that’s fine and good but you can’t touch it, experience it. I feel like these paintings would hit a lot different on a screen if you can’t walk into a studio and touch them. There’s something to that. So it’s part of keeping people grounded right here and now. It’s tough, especially now, to really live in the moment.,” he says.

The exhibit is on display now through the end of January in Bluenose Gopher Public House in downtown Granite Falls.