Cruising down main street, meeting friends at the local car hop, doing the Lindy and the Jive to the jukebox, going to the drive-in and barely watching the movie…these are some of the images invoked by the retro and automotive pop-art-flavored paintings of Jen Bissu. Strong composition, unique points of view, and striking color and contrast are hallmarks of her work. Driven by a passion for an era before her time, Jen Bissu’s paintings take the viewer back to the excitement-charged days when Elvis was King and a chrome-laden car was the coolest. “I can’t even explain what got me so interested in it,” Bissu says. “I just have this deep passion for the fifties embedded in me. There was a kind of magic to the era, a romance, that you can’t find anymore. Going to drive-ins in these gorgeous cars, sharing a Coke with two straws, going steady…it was so romantic! And the music of the era captures it perfectly. That’s what I strive for in my paintings, too…to capture the romance and excitement of the Fabulous Fifties.”
Born in a New Jersey town directly across the river from Manhattan, Jen Bissu had the art c
apital of America at arm’s reach during her formative years. Visiting museums and attending art classes in New York City schools added fuel to the creative fire burning inside her from her earliest days. By age six, Bissu could be found standing in the bustling corridors of NYC’s Chrysler Building, selling her drawings (both prints and originals). She began studying art formally by age nine, and knew right away it was to be her calling. She took art classes at several New York City schools including the United Nations International School, The Art Students League, the School of Visual Arts (SVA), and Pratt. Bissu went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude with a B.F.A. in Visual Communications/Illustration and M.A. in Fine Art Education from Kean University.
From childhood to now, Jen Bissu has delved into several art forms from drawing to watercolor to photography, and dabbled in several three-dimensional media as well. In a college Intro to Painting class, she discovered her medium of choice. Bissu immediately fell in love with the way the buttery acrylic and oil paints glide over the painting surface, and the rich colors they produce. Over the years, Bissu has flirted with many themes in painting: portraits, still life, landscape, even dilapidated buildings. But above all, her love for the roots of Rock’n’Roll and classic mid-century American culture has fostered a need to create art about classic cars, chrome, candy shoppe fountains, greasers, and pin-up cuties. Jen Bissu’s paintings embody the wholesomely sinful spirit of the 1950s and bring about a deliciously nostalgic feeling, even for those born too late to experience firsthand the magic of the Fabulous Fifties.
Twitter @JenBissu
