Scribble Town (ST): From across the Atlantic and all the up North I’d like you to meet Jaanika Peerna!  Jaanika moves with her art and her art moves her.  In any case, I think you will also feel the excitement and energy that her personality shines and her artwork shows.  Thank you Jaanika for taking the time and being with the Scribblers!

Jaanika Peerna (JP): I am an Estonian-born artist living in New York for many years now. I love to draw, make videos and installations that capture the processes in nature that are hard to see at times, whether it be evaporating mist, movement of wind or slowly changing light.

ST: What are you up to these days? Please tell us if there is a particular project you are working on.

JP: I have an exciting project at hand right now: I am preparing for a solo exhibition in a very special location : a castle on a hill overlooking the Hudson River in NY state. I have the liberty to make drawings, video and light installations that specially relate to the location of the show. And here I mean the architectural space of the show and the magnificent surroundings of the castle. For example there is a round room in the castle which is going to have a video projection on the curved wall . And therefore the projected video is going to look like embracing the viewer entering the space. Since the castle is higher up on a hill there is plenty of wind moving around the castle and many of my drawings are going to be traces of air movements. There will be a light installation that relates to the light of dawn in the Hudson Valley as well.

ST: Wow! A castle on a hill! You will have to let us know when the show will allow visitors. How has your art practice changed over time?  For example, with medium, concept, etc.

JP: My art practice changes and evolves as I do all the time. Although I have always been interested in working with various media at the same time and I still do. I started out as a painter who also photographed. Then I continued mostly drawing and photographing. The next step was to use digital technology to combine my drawings and photos together. Once working in computers video entered into my work since I was interested in viewing processes in nature slowed down or sped up.  For example I would videotape long footages of ice banks moving on Hudson river which is famous for being the river that flows both ways. The two-way movement is hard to see with the naked eye,  but once I had an hour long footage sped up to be a 20 minute video the various movements of ice occurring on the river were easy to follow and wonder about.

About 4 years ago a new medium entered my palette: working with light, which is an amazingly powerful material itself. It literally draws forms and textures out for us to see at every given moment of our lives. So why not to use it as a main material for making art? I have an installation where I use three strong directed lights programmed to dim and brighten very slowly. By brightening each light creates shadows of strips of paper attached the a wall ()

The latest addition is live drawing performances where I collaborate with dancers and musicians where a new drawing is born in front of audience just like here:

I am happiest when I can use all different media together in one exhibition. It seems like I have always been interested in subtle and sometimes more rapturous changes in nature but  the media I use to create my work have expanded. Drawing stays at the core of my practice though.

ST: I feel so many different things when I see your artwork.  I wonder what you hope to communicate with your art?

JP: I hope after experiencing my work people would perhaps start looking at nature with more attentiveness and curiosity. I hope to slow down people’s minds and eyes in order to see more and expand ones vision that way. Sometimes it is about the quality of seeing not about the quantity of objects we encounter. Small wonders are around us at every given moment!

ST: Now that I know more about you and your history with art making I’m curious to know about how you found this form for self-expression.  How old were you when you first started making art and who encouraged you to create?

JP: I must have been drawing a lot and with much interest because my parents who are not artists  put me into a special art school from the age of seven. I remember loving the fact that I could create whole worlds by drawing. It seemed so freeing and full of endless possibilities specially in the context of  the Soviet occupation my little country of Estonia was under at the time. Later on when I moved from Estonia to the USA and my English was about 5 % of what it is now, drawing turned out to be one of my survival tools in the new strange country I found myself in. My English could not even get close (and still does not) to expressing what I wanted to say whereas my abstract line drawings seemed to penetrate deep into people’s hearts and minds and cross all political and geographical borders. Once again drawing was freedom and my most innate language for me.

ST: Your artwork looks very energetic and active to me.  Can you tell us something about how you get yourself into a creative mindset- where to find that inspiration.  Is there a special place where you like to make your art?

JP: As my work often stems from the processes in nature daily walks and hikes outdoors bring a lot of energy into my work. While outdoors I gather impressions, take photos and videos,  dance with the winds and can watch for light shifting on waterfront for hours. Once in my studio many of those experiences and recordings work into my art. Before I start working on a drawing I often sit in silence for a while as of letting the winds that moved me outdoors to come upon me and then later on move my pencils around on the paper. I almost become a medium for creating the work rather than being fully in charge what the work will end up looking.

ST: Jaanika has shared an art project with Scribble Town called ‘Drawn by Wind’. Please go to  http://www.scribbleshop.com/content/jaanika-peernas-drawn-wind-art-activity.

JP: Keep the element of PLAY in your projects. Play means keeping your activity open ended, experimental and fun for as long as you can. Sure, at some point there is a need to close in and focus yourself in executing a chosen path but until then keep in flowing in unknowing…  There are too many tasks and activities in our lives that are linear and geared towards a specific goal anyway. So take the chance to play whenever possible!

You can see more of my work at my website at www.jaanikapeerna.net and follow my newest projects at 

ST: Thank you Jaanika for all the inspiration you have given us!