Janet Griffen

My work explores the slow accumulation and layering found in natural systems such as tree rings, sand dunes, sedimentary rock and coral skeletons, where countless small deposits gradually build complex structures over time. These processes offer a lens for understanding how memory, environment and lived moments gather and interact, shaping perception, emotion and the evolving formation of identity.

Through drawing, I construct visual environments using repeated marks, subtle layers and organic forms within elements of structure. Each mark acts as a small deposit within a larger evolving system. Over time, these gestures coalesce into dense expanses that reflect rhythms of growth, pressure, erosion and transformation, revealing patterns that emerge through the passage of time.

The resulting works exist between landscape and internal topography, suggesting identity as an evolving formation shaped by cycles, pressures and accumulated experience. Through slow, layered mark-making, the drawings explore how complexity arises from repetition and how the smallest gestures can evolve into expansive environments of depth, memory and presence.