Meet Jahn

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jahn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jahn, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

In Andre Breton’s 1928 text “Nadja”—a memoir of sorts after a woman of the same name—he recalls several of her poetic assertions. Among them is the troubling, beautiful fragment “…with the end of my breath, which is the beginning of yours.” As a painter, I work with only used supports, often discarded building materials. The evidence of prior interventions—nail holes, graphite markings, and so on—situate the beginning and end of my breath, as it were.

There is a strange and unsettling abdication of agency at stake in her statement. There is also an immense, and misplaced, trust in the author. To create, in this sense, is to converse, to defer, to commit. I keep my creativity by staying with the ambivalence. If one lets it live, one intervenes, or takes up, or lets go, or holds one’s breath.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I recently graduated the University of Oregon with a triple major in art history, studio art and comparative literature. I hope to pursue graduate study in art history, focusing in particular on postwar painterly abstraction in the global context. I regard my practice of painting, music and poetry an essential, reciprocal aspect of my academic development and aspirations. I hold the ultimate goal of becoming a researching professor. I see pedagogy as a creative and generous discipline in the vein of artistic creation, and I would be honored to pursue a career in which teaching was an integral aspect.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I am no authority, but I encourage all creatives to read widely, be kind to yourself and others and listen closely.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed—which is daily—I sleep, nightly. I have found the more I prioritize my sleep schedule, the more everything else falls into place. I recommend drinking coffee rather than alcohol where applicable and focusing on your breathing when you can.

Image Credits

Xinyu Liu