about j.e. paterak [she/her/hers]
Painter, metalsmith and curator J.E. Paterak earned her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, and a BFA with honors from Massachusetts College of Art. She has been working in various modalities as artist, jeweler, designer, naturalist and sometimes cultural catalyst (CitizenSalon, Guerrilla Gardener, Artists in Conversation, Architalx board member). Her work is in numerous private collections throughout the country as well as in public collections most notably at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Both her writing and work have been published in American Craft, Metalsmith Magazine and several Lark Books and Brynmorgen Press books. She has been awarded grants from Maine Arts Comission, as well as residencies at Monson Arts, HewnOaks, Bowdoin’s Kent Island Science Station among others.
She is a co-owner of Zero Station Gallery in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland. Zero Station is an independent gallery with a creative legacy celebrating TWENTY FIVE years this January 2025. She has be directing and curating for the gallery almost exclusively since 2020. Paterak lives and works in Portland, but has life long ties to midcoast Maine.
artist statement:
At first glance what seems as calculating as a scientific illustration, or even as an herbarium sample itself, is in fact quite a bit more painterly. Upon a closer look in person my paintings are as ephemeral and abstract as a brushstroke itself.
I am interested in drawing a sense of the 'life' of a being, in this case of weeds, an ephemeral quality of time passing. I think of them as portraits. I have returned to drawing and painting after many years principally as a small object maker and jeweler, a poet meets watchmaker. My eye for detail has drawn me in but also can set me loose as the painting itself becomes my focus.
I have also studied landscape design, historic landscape, botany and ecology all leading me to my current associations where I am now a comfortable amateur botanist and mycologist. The intersection of art and science is where I enjoy the process. In this time of both a culture and climate crisis, I am only one voice in the cacophony of others urging those with the power to act and legislate with care. We all need to relearn what it means to work with nature not against it. I believe beauty to bring can bring comfort and awareness to the amazing aspects of our biological existence and our beautiful blue planet. This is the voice I hope to project.
