Jillian Zambrano makes abstract art for homes out of her apartment in New Jersey. Zambrano’s work is an examination of color and line, adopting an automatic process to her artmaking. When I spoke with Jill, we went over her artistic process, how spirituality plays into her work, and how a leap of faith to pursue art shaped her life.
ELLA: I took a look at your Instagram and I saw that your posts started out with ink and pen drawings but recently it’s been moving towards paint. Could you tell me about your artistic process and what the creative process looks like for you?
JILL: I love working with designs and just making unique designs. I draw out of thin air really. I have no picture in mind. I just kind of create and free flow with something that I sketch out and I add to it while I’m drawing. I have never had much training with art; I never went to art school. I just started… I guess I just wanted to paint some canvases on the wall and for my apartment. Maybe 10-15 years ago is when I really started to paint and when I recognized that what I created was pretty cool. Like “This is nice. I’ll keep this.” I started to experiment with different colors and it’s evolved over the years to what you’ve been seeing recently.
Usually I’ll choose a particular color and then I use different shades of it. I use white paint and I create shades to make different depths and values in my work. I like to play with the color blue because [my work is] mostly nature inspired. I love the ocean and I spend a lot of time in oceans and beaches and forests. I get a lot of inspiration from that. You never know I’m going to create. I never know what I’m going to create. I just see what comes out.
ELLA: That’s cool. Automatic drawing is something I haven’t heard of a lot of artists starting out with. I think a lot of people have a conceptual idea before they start.
JILL: Yeah, I free flow. Maybe one day I’ll do a video of the start to finish process, but I have no idea what I’m going to draw and it’s always different.
ELLA: It’s funny you mentioned the ocean, because when I was looking at your work, the details and shading does remind me of waves. Especially with those green ones, it really feels like nature but they also have those sharp, clean edges. Could you walk me through one of your artworks and tell me what the intention was with that piece.
JILL: As far as the clean edges, with one of the green, larger pieces that I have, I was using paint tape. I taped the canvas differently and decided whether I wanted to paint on this side or the other. I will put a particular shade of green and then I just start to create these designs. I’m very spiritual, so I wanted to look very spiritual in some aspects. I wanted to bring a kind of power and illusion to the painting; I want people to look at my artwork and not know exactly what it is. With all my paintings, you can see different things. You can look at my painting and say, ‘I see a face in there. I see an animal or an object’, you never know. People have told me different things which is cool because some things I don’t see, but they see it.
ELLA: What comes to mind for me is your painting ‘Rose’. I see the figure in the negative space being outlined.
Jillian Zambrano, ‘Rose’, 12 x 16″, 2023.
ELLA: You own an Etsy shop and you have a focus for making art for other people’s spaces and homes. What draws you to buy other people’s artwork? Is there an aspect or a feeling that draws you to purchase or make work for your own home?
JILL: Yeah, I look at my home and look for what’s missing. I want to add color into the wall and I figure out what color I’m looking for in that space. It has to match with everything in my apartment and it has to match with that particular space. You know, the walls and the type of furniture, the color of the furniture that I have. I usually immediately know when I like something but I have to look at it and enjoy looking at it all the time. That would that’s one of the motivating factors of me buying something – I enjoy looking at this the whole time. And it has to speak to me, definitely. At the same time, every room is different. With living rooms, I like to keep them very tranquil and soft, similar to other rooms like my bedroom.
ELLA: With your own work, do you feel like you try to produce a connection with nature and instill that feeling of peace you’re talking about?
JILL: Yeah, because I’m very much spiritual and nature is something that I’m very inspired by. My home is my space, my sanctuary, and I want it to be very peaceful and very calming. So I want that to reflect with my art pieces.
Jillian Zambrano, ‘Garden of Solitude’, 12 x 16, Paper and ink, 2023.
ELLA: I saw that you have a career change in 2020 after being with the same job for 20 years. What was that like for you?
JILL: Well, I enjoyed what I was doing and I was with the airline for so long. I just wanted to do something else. There’s nothing wrong with being in a job that you love and that’s all you do, but for me, I always want to change. I welcome change. I don’t know if that’s Sagittarius in me, but I wanted to do something else. I wanted to be known for something else. So I’ve gone through different industries, medicine and education, because I wanted to know more. I knew that I would enjoy different things and I just wanted to gather as much information as I could to grow. I’m always looking into different things, and I’m still evolving. I’m still learning and trying to get to different things.
ELLA: What was your previous job?
JILL: I was a customer service representative for United Airlines for 20 years. I’ve also been a substitute teacher in the public school system and a nurse assistant in a hospital. I’m kind of still doing a little bit of that now.
ELLA: They sound like pretty stressful, special jobs, especially the United Airlines customer service. That can be a very stressful space.
JILL: Yeah, but you know, you learn. I enjoyed every part of it and I loved giving service, providing that and being of need and help to others. I was really, really good at what I did, so much that I wrote a book about it because I just feel like people needed to understand. People stress when we get to the airport and that’s understandable, but it helps if you communicate. It helps you talk to different types of people and definitely helps with connecting to different cultures and backgrounds. I’m still discovering. I mean, you have to.
ELLA: I see, so what lessons have you learned from all these careers that you’ve had and the change that you ultimately decided to make when you started to seriously double down on your art?
JILL: Well, I realized that it’s important if you’re going to spend years of your time that it’s something you enjoy and love even if it’s stressful. Stress is part of a lot of jobs but especially the jobs that I’ve been through so you have to enjoy it. I’ve always enjoyed being around people so that was probably one factor of deciding my career. I’ve always gone back to art because that’s something I always love doing and I feel like I can do every day, but not all day. It has to come to me and I have to feel like painting but it’s still always something I’ve enjoyed. It’s been a way to ground myself and to be in touch with myself. You have to love the hustle and the grind of whatever job you decide to do.
ELLA: Would you say that painting for you is a grounding exercise? It’s a release for your emotions and for your stress.
JILL: Definitely. It’s like another way of meditating for me. I have music in my ears and I can really just forget about everything else that’s going on in my world. I could just do this for hours and hours… until my cat starts meowing for food. But yes, it definitely helps me be in touch with my inner being and everything that’s important to me. It’s really beautiful to find something like that for yourself. When I look at the stuff that I created, I’m like, ‘wow, did I do that?’. It’s incredible, it’s God in me, my inner being, creating through me. I have an obligation to continue it and continue to evolve because it seems like it’s getting better and better.
ELLA: Is there anything that you wanted to highlight or share with the ATA community, anything you’re working on?
JILL: Right now, I’m working on a series called ‘Enchanted’. I’m using shades of blue with white. I’m doing different designs right now so I’ll be posting them soon.
Jillian Zambrano, ‘Letting Go’, 12 x 16, Paper and ink, 2023.
You can find Zambrano’s work on Instagram (@jillianzambranoart) and purchase her work through her Etsy shop (https://www.etsy.com/shop/jzartdesignstudio/?etsrc=sdt).