Jen DeLuna
Jen DeLuna is a Filipino and Colombian-American painter currently based in Boston, MA. DeLuna’s paintings delve into the exploration of the feminine through the lenses of intimacy and vulnerability. Through her brushstrokes and subject matter, DeLuna points to the tension that underpins her source material: between movement and stillness, between viewer and subject, and between the personal and the public.
Collect Bean: Are there any artists or movements that have inspired or influenced your work?
Jen DeLuna: A large painting of a boy crying out, standing with a ghostly white dog against a hastily painted black abyss. I hated the painting at first, but I could not stop looking at it. It was in someone’s home, so I never knew who the artist was, but I think about it a lot.
Collect Bean: If you had to describe your work in only three words, what would they be?
Jen DeLuna: Tenderness, Fear, Power
Collect Bean: How do you think your work has evolved?
Jen DeLuna: I began to develop this body of work last November. Up until that point, I worked primarily in acrylic paint and mixed media. With previous works, I focused heavily on experimentation. I explored textures, colors, and figurations. It was exciting, but my art practice felt muddled and scattered. When I began to concentrate on developing a specific technique, it was freeing. The concepts behind my paintings haven’t changed drastically; however, I am able to focus on the subjects more than the approach.
Collect Bean: Where are you currently finding inspiration?
Jen DeLuna: Amateur pin-up photography.
Collect Bean: How does your painting process look like from start to finish?
Jen DeLuna: It begins with the act of collecting and archiving. I collect images, usually in the form of old photographs. I find them in thrift stores, family photo albums, eBay, social media, and advertisements. I go through thousands of images to keep a couple hundred. Most will not make their way into a painting. But some become a painting again, and again and again, until it feels right. It might be silly, but I think most of my time making a painting is spent thinking about it. Once I’ve decided on the images, made the edits, and created the composition, I start and finish painting.
