Visit Jennifer’s Studio

Q&A with Jennifer

1. What is your chosen medium?

Ceramics & Printmaking. And metalsmithing. Or whatever you put in front of me. 

2. How did you start your career in art?

Define career. I don’t recall not making art. It has always been there, whether I make a living from it or not. 

3. What informs your art?

Material and place are first, followed by the concepts of loss, memory and time. 

4. What jobs you have worked other than as a professional artist?

Elementary art teacher, university administrator (event & grant management), truck dispatcher, paste-up artist, National Park inn concierge… I have also worked at a H.O.G. rally, a nail factory, Applebee’s, and a deli.

 5. What questions do you ask yourself when starting to work?

What can I eliminate?

6. Do you have a quote that’s important to you displayed in your studio?  If so, what is it?  

I’m in a temporary studio, but I’ll share this:

Timesweep by Carl Sandburg:

I was born in the morning of the world,
So I know how morning looks
morning in the valley wanting,
morning on a mountain wanting.
Morning looks like people look,
like a cornfield wanting corn,
like a sea wanting ships.
Tell me about any strong, beautiful wanting,
And there is your morning, my morning,
everybody's morning.

7. Which artist (living or not) would you most like to invite for dinner? What would you serve?

Argh. This question. Who do I think would be fun to invite to dinner, or who do I respect? Short list: Isamu Noguchi. Zarina Hashmi. Betty Woodman. Georgia O’Keeffe. Wasily Kandinsky. Eva Hesse. In the end, I’m inviting Faith Ringgold to share Shrimp & grits and fried okra (mostly because I am in New Zealand where grits do not exist, so this is my default fantasy meal).  

8.  What has been your most unusual request for your art?

When I worked as a metalsmith, I was often asked if I make dolphins. 

9. What music are you listening to these days?

Beck and R.E.M.(mostly early R.E.M). Being a teenager in the late 80s, and growing up so close to Athens, GA I always return to the music. Can I invite Beck to dinner as well?

10. What is on your nightstand?

I don’t have one at the moment, but if I did it would be a cup of tea, a lamp and a stack of books I hope to absorb by osmosis. I also have a Frida Kahlo postage stamp in a small square frame that travels with me.