Meet the Mentor | Janelle Cordero
Graphic by Andy Zeng. Photo courtesy of Janelle Cordero.
The COUNTERCLOCK Arts Collective is an online, 8-week fellowship program that allows creative writers, visual artists, and musicians to explore, illuminate, and grow through collaborating on interdisciplinary projects. Learn more about the Arts Collective here. For the next weeks leading up to the application deadline, we will be featuring mini-interviews with 2020 mentors.
About the Mentor
Janelle is an interdisciplinary artist constantly experimenting with form to create hybrid, genre-less pieces. Her paintings have been featured in venues throughout the Pacific Northwest. Her newest chapbook with Bottlecap Press, which also featured original artwork, was published in January of 2019. Stay connected with Janelle’s work at www.janellecordero.com.
CAC: Could you briefly introduce yourself and your discipline? Why did you choose this discipline?
JC: I’m a painter, poet and educator from the Pacific Northwest. I chose painting as a primary discipline, because painting allows me to express myself in a tactile and sensory way. My paintings are visual representations of my interpretation of humanity in all its grotesqueness and glory.
I chose painting as a primary discipline, because painting allows me to express myself in a tactile and sensory way. My paintings are visual representations of my interpretation of humanity in all its grotesqueness and glory.
CAC: Why do you make art? When did you realize it was something you wanted to pursue?
JC: I make art because it fulfills my needs for contemplation and prayer. When I’m solely focused on painting or sketching, my mind isn’t distracted by meaningless thought cycles. I’m utterly in the moment, giving myself entirely to whatever piece I’m working on. And it’s thrilling when I can capture the human essence with some ink lines and messy splashes of watercolor.
Janelle Cordero: Ari, watercolor on paper
CAC: Can you discuss the last project(s) that have meant the most to you?
JC: I published a hybrid poetry and art collection last fall through Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, and I am so thrilled with how the project turned out! It’s wonderful to see my two primary disciplines paired together to create something colorful, moving and mystical.
CAC: What are you currently working on in your artistic life?
JC: Every day brings a new project and a new perspective. I’m playing with a variety of shading techniques for my watercolor and ink portraits. I’m also creating messy ink sketches to accompany my next poetry collection, which is due to be published late this fall.
CAC: How do you manipulate medium, style, and/or voice?
JC: I’m not sure if manipulate is the right word, but I’m constantly playing with how ink and watercolor interact to express the human form. I’m a minimalist, so I like to reduce the human form down to shape and color.
I want to serve as a mentor because I love to encourage young people who are pursuing their passion.
CAC: Why did you decide to mentor for the 2020 Arts Collective?
JC: We all need guidance in our craft at one point or another. I want to serve as a mentor because I love to encourage young people who are pursuing their passion.
CAC: Is there anything else you would like us to know?
JC: I can’t wait to see the work of our emerging artists evolve over the summer! I am also thrilled to simply serve as an encourager and an accountability partner.
Janelle Cordero "Annete”, “Avery”, “Mel” – Crab Fat Magazine
Learn more about the Arts Collective here.
Apply to the Arts Collective here.
Sarah Feng is the editor-in-chief of COUNTERCLOCK Journal and the director of the Arts Collective. Her creative writing has been awarded by the Poetry Society of the United Kingdom, the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the Adroit Prizes in Prose & Poetry, NCTE, the Critical Pass Review, American High School Poets, the Leyla Beban Young Author’s Foundation, Teen Vogue, and the New York Times. She plays piano and dabbles in charcoals, and she thinks rhythm and light and lyric pulse in every field of the creative arts – if you can call them distinct fields at all. In other words, she has faith in the power of the interdisciplinary arts and their persistence in our memories and minds. She studies at Yale University.