Jenamarie Bacot

“Rothko is a prevalent influence in my works and on me, Rothko’s color fields communicate beyond just color. They are allegorical paintings about his soul. While I am not attempting to copy him, I am walking on a path he created as I develop confidence in creating my own artistic path.” Jenamarie Bacot.

Jenamarie Bacot' was raised in a deaf family.  She sees herself as culturally deaf but physically hard of hearing person. Bacot's career in visual arts began at a summer program offered at Otis College of Art and Design. Later, Bacot went on to excel in Studio Arts, receiving B.F.A. from The Rochester Institute of Technology in 2003 with high honors. She is currently attending Rochester Institute of Technology, anticipating M.F.A. in Studio Art and a minor in Art History this year.

Bacot’s works show deep concern towards the depreciation of Life and in doing so, how we depreciate ourselves.  Her playful, creative process has a room for improvising the final outcome. She also draws from selected motifs from the caves of the past such as, the Lascaux caves.  Upon selecting certain motifs, she creates intimate interplay of forms that remind us of a time past when the primitive people lived in harmony with their environment.

As a deaf painter, Bacot has a deep passion for visual arts which she also shares with students and viewers alike. During her studies, Bacot served as an inspiration to those around her. She dedicated a great deal of time encouraging and educating young people in the arts. She is actively involved with various organizations devoted to help the youth such as the church Joshua Revolution and an after school program at the Rochester School for the Deaf. In 2004 Bacot founded the Joy Gallery in Rochester, NY where she and a group of artists named the Restoration Art Guild converted and restored an old house into a full time art gallery. With such ambitious projects, Bacot is an immense contributor to her community.

Bacot's intaglio prints combine color, shape and texture which exist naturally with exquisitely detailed abstractions. Her pieces incorporate many different shades of browns and reds for most of the image with hints of blue, grey and black shading. The image perhaps resembles a microscopic view of banded gneiss or some other metamorphic rock formations. Bacot pays great attention to the detail of the shapes and line of the colorful abstract images, giving it a sense of realism. The black and white shapes depicted in some of her works employ sharp, jagged lines in order to create boulder like forms. The colors of these abstract prints truly exhibit the stark difference between realistic portrayals and her vast imagination. Often the images are not pictured in a real setting but portrayed on a white background which enhances the contrast within the works. The three dimensional abstract forms in her works are reminiscent of natural forms, taking on an entirely different existence with her beautiful utilization of black and white shading.

Bacot's exquisite abstractions are truly a mark of a greatly passionate artist who is focused on exhibiting her own self expression as well as aiding others to exhibit theirs.