Objects fascinate me: their function, form, and the value we place on them. In my work, I seek a balance between the documentation of a moment and the monumental iconic quality of the ordinary object. I find myself fascinated by the exquisite care in crafting objects that are ultimately created for consumption or disposal.

Recently, I have become interested in 17th century Wunderkammers or Cabinets of Curiosity. These collections of objects, specimens, antiques, and oddities were created to educate, but they did so much more. They created questions about class and value. Often they would contain a mixture of fact and fiction. My recent paintings are wunderkammers of sorts. I paint everyday, recognizable objects. I paint the mundane and useless. I paint antiques and heirlooms. I paint gifts and tools. I paint objects as stand-in's for people. I paint humorous, ironic, iconic, beautiful, ugly, kitsch things. I paint my autobiography. I paint memories.

My drawings and paintings always start from observed fact. My process begins with the shapes, forms, and color present in the subject. The light changes and shadows move and I try to document the experience of my long looking. Each object becomes a part to the whole, a document of a day. I remove these objects from their function and present them to the viewer in a new context. I want the viewer to question these relationships and to make new associations.

The pockets of abstraction within the most ordinary, everyday object interest me. There is a tiny self-contained color field painting within a cup of tea. A universe of shape and color exists across a cellophane wrapper. This experience of color on form is most important to me.

I believe that certain objects reveal something about who we are. I don't want to explain them. I don't think that I could if I tried. But, I want to present them so that they can be evocative in an existential way. I often use food as a subject to evoke cultural and psychological associations and to provide a dense, substantial visual experience. I wish for the sculptural integrity of the food as an object to contrast thematically with its ephemerality. The notions of transience, appetite, and need are important to me. I ask the viewer to see beyond representation to metaphor. To see beyond need to desire, in all of its forms.

Jennifer Maloney is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. where she lives and works. She received her MFA from Brooklyn College. She is currently teaching at Adelphi University and has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and New York Institute of Technology.