Journie Kirdain was born in 1993 in Santa Rosa, California. In 2017, she received her BA in Liberal Arts in the Great Books at St. John’s College. Kirdain is currently an MFA candidate at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she is the recipient of the New Artist Society scholarship. She currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.
For me, art is a process of expansion, and it allows for oblique ways of thinking. Sometimes I start with a clear idea, at other times I begin with a predilection, a preoccupation, or an emotional tone. At times, I use my own body as the starting point for my work, sitting in the middle (literally) of my painting and drawing from there. The empty space left from my presence is delineated by the maelstrom of drawings and detritus that start to accumulate around me. During my stay at SAIC, I learned many new techniques and materials, some of which are pictured here, that I have only begun to explore. I enjoy using these materials symbolically, and for their particular visual qualities. Even without any particularly clear method, I think of my art as an expanded field. Art is a choice someone makes about the way they spend time, and in that sense it is an assertion of identity. What is made can be read according to its own logic and context in similar aesthetic traditions, or it can be read as a metaphorical statement reflecting on the values by which a person chooses to exist in the world.