Interview by Jimon
1. How would you describe Jennifer Pochinski? Introverted, private, independent, a workaholic, over-reactor, loves humor.
2. Can you share a bit about your journey? My path has been a slow burn. I always painted after college, but it wasn’t until I was 30 that I made it the central focus of my life. I was already married by then, but I realized I didn’t want to be a wife. I wanted to be a painter. That wasn’t compatible in my ex-husband’s mind (though he’s now a great friend and a real champion of my work). As a single mother of two, I didn’t think supporting my two kids as a painter was possible. So I went back to school and earned a degree in Interior Architecture from AKTO. I was living in Greece at the time. Before I could take a single design job, I was offered a solo show for my paintings. And I never looked back. But I’ve felt like I’m making up for lost time ever since. That urgency has never left me.
3. Which art school did you attend and how did it help your process? I grew up in Hawaii and got my BFA in painting from the University of Hawaii. Being so far away from New York, or even California, put me at a distance from the commercial art world. In hindsight, that was a gift. My focus back then wasn’t on showing or building a career; it was on learning how to really engage with the act of painting and with the surface itself. I spent many years working privately, building strong convictions.
4. Was there a pivotal moment when you knew painting would be central to your life? It has always been what I do. When I started showing my work, It brought a sense of validation in a tangible way.
5. What do you find most rewarding about being an artist? I feel incredibly lucky to be able to paint every day. I like engaging with something bigger than me.
6. Many of your works focus on the figure. What is it about the human form that keeps you engaged? I paint the figure to affirm our presence. Our existence is always suspended between the past and the future. And a painting collapses time. The figure lets me hold onto what’s fleeting. In painting, the body becomes a vessel for all kinds of emotional states. Most of my figures are isolated. Some confront the viewer directly, others are withdrawn into themselves. It really depends on the figure-ground relationship. That tension between the subject and the space around it carries a lot of psychological weight.
7. Are the figures in your paintings based on real people, memory, or imagination? I collect images. I find them everywhere: social media, movies, shows, my own camera roll. These images show a charisma to me. I return to certain characters again and again. They become part of my visual vocabulary. They’re starting points, emotional triggers, stand-ins. Whatever they stand in for is up to the viewer.
8. Do you begin with a clear concept or let the image evolve on the canvas? I may start with a figure in a context that resonates with me. It may be based on something autobiographical. But I cannot control where it goes from there. It tends to play by a set of rules that are unknown to me, and the rules keep changing! I feel constant resistance. I am always pushing against it at almost every moment in the studio. The transformation on the canvas is not a linear process, it is an alchemic one. I want it to be about one thing, not just a painting of a bunch of nouns.
9. What role does color play in conveying emotion in your work? I’d describe my palette as psychological rather than naturalistic. Color is my language. It’s how I wrestle with form. I’m constantly fighting against being complacent, predictable, too literal, or even fake-spontaneous. Color drives everything in the painting. The color has to have something to do, not just be noise. It’s part of the painting’s architecture, not decoration.
10. Can you describe your typical painting process from start to finish? I don’t have a fixed process. I paint and wait for something interesting to happen. There are always works lingering in limbo in the studio. I paint quickly, but that speed demands more time afterward to really see what’s there. Time is essential. Paintings inform future paintings as well as past paintings. I love to circle back to a piece that is 6 months or 6 years old and rework it with my new knowledge. Everything is in conversation: past, present, unresolved.
11. How has your technique or style evolved over the years? My work has evolved a lot over the years. Partly because I’ve matured, but also because my environment keeps changing. I moved from the U.S. to Greece to California to the East Coast. In a couple weeks I will live in Greece again. Those shifts have a real impact. But at the core, I’m still grappling with the same impulses, the same strengths and obstacles. When I look back at older work, I often ask: what didn’t I allow myself to do? That question helps me move forward. The evolution isn’t just about refining technique—it’s about giving myself more permission.
12. What emotions or ideas are you trying to communicate through your work? I’m not trying to communicate anything specific. I am trying to make a painting. I’m inside a narrow, intuitive path, where each decision leads to the next. It’s a process of intense focus and responsiveness, not premeditation. If the painting ends up being “about” something, it’s only in hindsight. In the moment, it feels like a series of coincidental right moves—where form, color, and gesture lock into place in a way that feels inevitable. Whatever emotional or psychological content the piece holds at some point reveals itself.
13. How much of your personal life or psychology enters into your paintings? Probably all of it, but not in a direct or diaristic way. I’m not illustrating events from my life. The imagery I collect feeds into something larger emotionally and psychologically. For example, I created my first snow painting this past winter in New England, which seemed endlessly cold. It’s called Crossing.
14. Do you see painting as a form of therapy, confrontation, or discovery? Yes, absolutely.
15. Which artists, living or dead, have influenced you the most? My paintings are an accumulation of things before me and in dialogue with what’s happening now. But my three years living near New York and Boston had a tremendous influence on my work. Not through specific artists, but, oddly, through the architecture. The buildings there are old, solidly built. That sense of permanence and weight seems to have seeped into my paintings. I think about structure, presence, and how things hold together. I am moving permanently to Europe at the end of the month. I am excited to see what happens with the work.
16. What has been the most surprising reaction you’ve had to one of your works? Recently, someone sent me a post about a piece a woman bought—Fish in the Sea. It resonated with her for very personal reasons, and I was deeply moved. I was surprised by how strongly it connected with her, and it was meaningful to see the painting through her eyes.
17. How do you navigate the art world as a painter today? The art world often feels like a parallel reality to the actual work of painting. The role and status of artists have shifted so much over the centuries, and I don’t feel the need to fulfill today’s expectations. At the same time, I am glad to be working in these times. I love Instagram and art guide apps. It’s great to be able to see so much work out there.
18. Are there mediums or subjects you’ve been hesitant to try but want to? Yeah, and I don’t even know what they are yet!
19. If you had to swap your painting practice with a completely different creative outlet for a month, what would you try—music, dance, sculpture, something else? I already do ceramics, so I’d love to do that or printmaking with a master printer for a month. Or I would love to paint scenery for a play or ballet. That job probably doesn't even exist...
20. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? Social performance. To put it bluntly: schmoozing. Not good at it.
21. How do you stay motivated over long periods, especially when not actively exhibiting or selling work? Pretty easily. My default mode is painting ‘like no one is watching’. The challenge of painting is so compelling, it pretty much overshadows any thoughts of exhibitions or sales.
22. How would someone find you on social media? @jenniferpochinski