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J. Jay West
www.jjaywest.com (under construction)
artglass@aloha.net
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Jay blends her passion for recycling with the creation of fine art and one-of-a-kind functional art. Her innovative and sometime obsessive attention to detail has produced many fascinating and striking works of art making her one of Hawaii’s award-winning artists.
Working out of her Kamuela studio she creates art and fine craft from paper and glass while experimenting in photography. She was the first artist-in-resident at the Keaau Recycling & Reuse Center when it opened in 2003. She is on the board of Recycle Hawaii and a member of the Hamakua Artisans’ Guild plus other local and national art associations.

Jay’s days are split between creating art and volunteering in support of community art projects and recycling organizations. She shares her passion for creating art from found objects by holding workshops in mosaics and papermaking. Her artwork is in private collections in both Hawaii and the continental U.S. and has been selected for a number of exhibitions.

Artist statement
“In the process of transforming mundane objects into things of beauty and meaning, I’m captured by the thrill and subtle twists of vision I am granted. I’m like an explorer on a path never before traveled where every new vista fills me with joy.

I am a multi-media abstract artist that utilizes recycled materials in most of my work. I prefer to use recycled glass, paper, wood, and metals out of respect for our finite environment. I guess you could call me an Eco-Artisan. I hold a BFA in Design, sometimes referred to as Applied Arts from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. While in school I started in the area of ceramics then gravitated to the fiber department where I concentrated my studies in structural fiber (aka weaving).

My work begins with making the material itself to be used in my art. Such as paper for my recent assemblages. Fibers are my materials of choice. I appreciate the warmth and texture; the subtle variations that fuse together creating comfortable earth tone colors. My vision of a piece is fine tuned by my choice of surface textures, both natural and deliberate, knowing that the mechanical process of tearing and reassembling the paper will influence the outcome. I use geometric shapes formed from my handmade sheets of paper I make and apply surface designs to the wet paper using acrylic paints, oxides and spices. When the paper is dry I start to compose the final piece onto stretched canvas.

As a life-long-learner I’ve been refining my skills in acrylic painting since 2005. Acrylic paints have given me an opportunity to explore painting abstract faces with saturated colors. My recent work has been inspired by the blending of bright colors by painting on unconventional canvas.  For years I’ve been looking at the coconut trees by my studio wondering how can I utilize this renewable resource in my work. I started seeing faces in the brown fronds that fell from the coconut trees. These fronds have become the canvas for my most recent works.”

To reach the artist email:  artglass@aloha.net    Ph: 808-885-7812