Jennifer Mourin - Biodata and Artist Statement
I paint because I have no choice
I paint because it is in my blood
I paint because it soothes my soul
I paint because it keeps me sane
I paint because …
I don’t know how not to…..
About me:
I am a Malaysian woman, living and working in Penang. I am
Eurasian by birth, and unequivocally Asian in mind and spirit.
Art has always been a huge part of my life and psyche. It has fed my soul, kept me sane and filled a void
that lingers. I was very active at one point early in my life but gave it up my further studies, very
demanding jobs, and familial responsibilities. Now, I have returned to my souls’ longing. I have never had
any academic training in art or painting. I am essentially self-taught.
An early example of my self-training pencil
sketch from 1984
‘Growth’ - Self Portrait, 1992.
My earliest initiation was by a very talented resourceful mother who had very limited resources, but kept
her little girl busy by doing outlines of nursery rhyme figures so ‘the baby’, me, could fill it with colours
from my vivid imagination. Art was one of my favourite activities in school, and I believe it gave me an
important balance between the numeral-gymnastics of math, the mysteries of science and landscape of
languages, geography and history. I loved it and thrived when I did it!
For me, the importance of the arts—from the visual to music to drama—has never been more important as
in these contradictory modern times of global connectedness and cyber-insularity.
“Today I am free to begin again, today I paint and draw without fear, without doubt, without tears - yes I
have begun!” I told myself at the beginning of 2009, and I have not looked back since.
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Influences: I am moved by many, but am truly inspired by a
few ‘gems’ who have illuminated the art world. My influences
are those who painted because they too had no choice, they
too paved their own ways on their own terms: Frida Kahlo,
Remedios Varo, Leonora Charrington, Slyvia Goh, Susan Loone,
Cynthia Tom, Gustav Klimt, Rene Magritte, Paul Gauguin, Roger
Simon, and Eng Tay.
Medium: I love the flexibility and fluidity of gouache as it
adventures on paper or canvas from my brush, but also use
acrylics and inks.
What I paint: Benevolently haunted by memories of my
mother’s Thai village in Kelantan my memories have turned
unapologetically nostalgic and romantic. I love the sarongs the
women wore, and the strength of the women I knew there
including a beloved great grand-aunt. I have claimed them as a
totem for my identity and art.
'Evening Reverie' - Gouache and Acrylic, 2009
‘A Friend Indeed’ - Acrylic, Gouache
and Ink, 2010
'Comfort and Love' – Acrylic, Gouache and Ink, 2010
I have also become increasingly aware of how such a nurturing, loving, act as breastfeeding has ironically
become a controversial, even ‘obscene’, act in society’s cynically-jaundiced eyes. So I reclaim this as well,
revelling in the power of mothers supporting mothers, women supporting women. A woman has a right to
choose whether she wants to breastfeed her child. When she does choose, it is only right that she is
supported to breastfeed and nurture her child whether at home, in the workplace, or in other places she
exists as a part of the society that she lives in. And this support should come from husband, partner,
immediate and extended family, her community, and her socio-political leadership. But I am fascinated by
how women have supported one another: from sharing of knowledge, imparting of skills and experience,
to a comforting word, smile or hand on the shoulder indicating care, camaraderie, support and solidarity.
My art features strong women. It celebrates women responding to the on-going changes in their
environment and communities -- women as care-givers of mother earth, as monitors of the development
affecting her environment, as resisters of mal-development and destruction.
My art is also influenced by the eternal search for balance and fulfilment of the souls’ spiritual journey, and
the pursuit of understanding of ones’ reality.
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‘Mother Earth – Nourish’, Acrylic, Gouache and Oil
Ink, 2011
‘Sisterhood’ – Acrylic, Gouache and Oil Ink, 2011
2011
Education: Butterworth Convent Secondary School (Malaysia); Institute of Commercial Management
(Bournemouth, UK); London College of Printing (now London College of Communications, London, UK).
Career: Editorial Collective member Spare Rib Magazine, UK (1984-1992); Programme Officer to Dep.Ex.
Director, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific, Malaysia (PAN AP – 1993-2008); Freelance Editor,
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA, 2010); Consultant, World Alliance for
Breastfeeding Action, Malaysia (WABA – 2009-present).
Exhibits:
October 2010
- Exhibit and stall at WABA Breastfeeding Partners Forum - Paintings sold to participants from the
Medical Filed from India, Africa and the US.
November 2010
- Exhibit and stall at the Little Penang Street Market - Painting sold to medical Professional from
Penang Island Hospital.
December 2010
- Exhibit on Facebook - Painting sold to client from Belgium
January 2011
- Exhibit and stall at the Little Penang Street Market - Painting sold to visitors from Japan and Australia.
March 12 to 20, 2011
- Creative Women’s Exhibit (with Susan Loone and Joan Cheong) at the g Hotel, as part of the Penang
State governments’ International Women’s Day celebrations.
May 22 to June 12, 2011
- Art Exhibition on Motherhood: Celebrating and Supporting Women as Mothers, Workers and
Nurturers!, at the Gallery Seni Mutiara, 118, Armenian Street,Penang on the occasion of the World
Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) 20th Anniversary.
Contact: Jennifer Mourin. E-mail: jenmourin@yahoo.co.uk
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