Artist Bio
Emerging artist Janeil “Janjan” Day was born and raised in Oahu, Hawaii as first generation Filipino American. Led by her heart, and fueled with passion, she explores themes of her childhood, environmentalism, social justice, and mental health.
Early on, Hawaii’s local flora and fauna has heavily inspired her works of nostalgia, reconnecting back to her childhood. Over time, their work incorporates various patterns inspired by batok tattoos, polynesian tattoos, paisley patterns into her ecofeminist works, sparking conversations of climate change.
Aside from her whimsical art and peculiar drawings, she has been working on a message of duality within oneself, conflicted between the world of post-industrialism with its modern technology and the agrarian world with its preservation of nature.
Janjan’s art education experience is unique: from childhood to adolescence she was very invested in their art classes in school, learning fundamentals from her art teachers, then she later on abandoned art for a different career path. It wasn’t until her young adult years she returned to art as a way to navigate their mental health, and has been a self taught artist ever since.
Since 2024, she has done live art and gallery walks at art events located in Nevada, and at festivals in California and Oregon. They also appeared in themed art gallery exhibitions hosted by Makers Paradise, and Sierra Arts Foundation and have done public mural paintings in Virginia City and Carson City.
Art and creativity has largely impacted Janjan, and hopes to encourage others the same path. She believes in using the creative process to alchemize emotions, transmuting them onto a canvas in order to understand themselves.
My Statement
I believe in approaching the canvas the same way we approach life: letting go of expectations and enjoying the process by being present. Painting, to me, became one of the best ways to help me heal from my PTSD but also a crucial routine in regulating my nervous system. My outlook of life has always been emotion led, and often I turn to sketches and painting to understand myself better but to also rid myself of the so-called, “brain rot” from consuming modern day technology we Gen Z people use everyday for social media, and reset my mind.
Both my childhood nickname and my pseudonym being “Janjan” I create art to honor my inner child. Intention to play and being whimsical has always been the start of every creative project and I tend to channel this by playing music before I start. It wasn’t until I started playing around with paint that my artistic vision would come to me, and soon what once just messy random strokes become images I slowly form and hone over time.
In my work, I have a love for color and so very rarely does my art ever use a greyscale palette unless it was pen and paper. My deep love for nature, astronomy, various mythological cultures and esoteric knowledge have always been integrated in my works. The combinations of things I have loved along with the curvature and shapes of feminine figures have formed a world of my own, and I love to play in these worlds.
Acrylic paint is not the only medium I’ve played around with. I’ve explored and enjoyed watercolors, gouache, textural paintings, clay, and mixed media, and I learned more about my own creative process in each of these mediums. My creativity often becomes a temporary ‘escape’ from the real world, but that small sliver of escapism during my creative process soon enough reveals another perception of how I view the world, in turn, deepening the relationship with myself. If I would find a way to love myself again, I wouldn’t want it any other way than to paint my heart away.