field study III Collage

Jennifer Bell is an Australian contemporary artist known for her highly decorative paintings and paper weavings. Her intricate work explores pattern and visual perception often highlighting the beauty in the ordinary. Jennifer's work is influenced largely by her experience of a little known neuro-ophthalmologcal condition which means she sees patterned dots in her visual field, continuously. These dots appear as a fine veil of dancing, kaleidoscopic colour that can never be turned off. Even on the calmest day and in the simplest of environments, surroundings that may seem static and plain to others are full of movement and decoration. Jennifer shares this unique experience of the world through her art. It has been suggested in recent years as more becomes known of the condition that artists such as Georges Seurat, the pioneer of pointillism, Van Gogh and Yayoi Kusama famous for her dots, may also have experienced the symptoms of visual snow disorder. It may be a view not perceived by everyone, but no matter how we see the world, pattern still exists all around us both man-made and naturally occurring; from the beauty and complexity of fractals in nature to the printed fabric of your clothing. Jennifer’s artwork often incorporates recycled materials and images of discarded and decayed objects emphasising that pattern and beauty can be found in everyday things. Understanding that beauty exists in the imperfect. During four years spent in New Zealand she ran her own gallery in the picturesque Wellington suburb of Island Bay. Today she works a full time independent artist from her sunny studio and her work is represented in private collections throughout Australia, New Zealand, North America, Europe, The Middle East and Asia.