Janine Stern: Exit Series

Needles, 37”x30”x2” Framed Chromogenic Print on Metallic Paper

The Exit Series, is a provocative body of work that evokes Memories, Messages and Beauty. My medium began early on as pencil on roofing tar paper and evolved into working on white paper. Years, of color on black emerged to pencil on white, while simulating the same sensuous tar paper. Color tones are rich adding vibrancy to the skies and desert land. My color palette is enormous with over one hundred and fifty pencil shades, allowing for many multiple layers of pencil.

Accompanying my technique is subject matter: Industrial, Iconic remnants dotting along US highways. These relics have reached the same demise as the steel mills. A documentation of sign becomes a relished Historic find. Years of Ancient History saturates iconic Route 66, leaving behind ghost towns and heroic displays of neon and steel. Abandoned signage against desert’s hazy skies create a lonely ambience and an uninviting stage set. Recreating architectural structures found from the Googie era, lends itself to a design time period of splendid and flowing angular perspectives.

NEEDLES, CALIFORNIA

Each artwork Title is named after the Highway Exit. “Needles”, is a desert town in California in the Mojave desert, just across the bridge from Arizona, and by the tip of Nevada. The fabled Route 66 runs through downtown Needles.

Needles formation began when three railroads, Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Railroad and the Santa Fe Railroad joined together to form the 35th Parallel Transcontinental Railroad. Charles Schulz epitomized Snoopy’s brother Spike as living in Needles, California.