Jeannie Griffin-Peterka, a Dallas native, began her formal training at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX) while studying abstract expressionists in Art History. She later worked with several accomplished artists but it wasn’t until she met her mentor, Zanne Hochberg, that she was able to go into what she refers to as “pure abstraction.”
“I asked [Zanne Hochberg] if she would take me on as a student… She became my mentor, and teacher, my friend, and always an inspiration. She believed in me as an artist and I will be forever grateful to her.”
Griffin-Peterka now holds a studio in the Button Factory and has exhibited her work in a variety of venues throughout the Northeast. This is her first exhibition with the Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester.
“I don’t have anything in mind when I start to work except for perhaps some colors I might like to use that day. Even that is subject to change, though, as the painting continues to progress. I start by putting color on the canvas, drawing with charcoal or paint, adding layers of paint and soon something will begin to emerge. I turn the canvas constantly so that it’s worked from all directions. I only decide at the end which way it should hang. I’m currently working with multiple panels and joining them together in the back. I like seeing the energy between the panels and the sharp line made from joining the panels. There is nothing more exciting to me than seeing one or more freshly stretched canvases hanging on my studio wall and wondering what the final painting will look like.”
