Hi, I’m Jennifer. I am a mixed media artist working out of my studio in north downtown Omaha, in the Hot Shops. I am a Nebraska native and I’ve been making art professionally since 2012. 

For me, creating art is about connecting with nature and setting; celebrating the handmade process; and experiencing a sense of wholeness. In an increasingly noisy world I seek to establish balance and a sense of calm in my work. I use paints, colored pencils, ink, leather, and coiled string. Much of my work is anchored in natural history and the “quiet beauty” of the High Plains. I draw inspiration from formations like the Badlands, whose exposed layers show the effects of water and wind over millions of years. Sandhill cranes are a favorite subject. With their annual congregation along an 80-mile stretch of the central Platte River, they feel ancient and evocative of this place. I like to use old maps and census pages as collage material. In the crane pieces I’ve made, I fashioned some of the birds’ feathers out of maps and atlas indexes, imagining the birds bore them as a record of their travels. Birds in flight make us think of  freedom and a lack of containment.

Water and the life it sustains is a theme throughout my work. Sunset, Highway 2, shows a windmill nestled in the Sandhills. The image is a tribute to the unique ecoregion and the Ogallala acquifer that’s located beneath them. Mixed media maps of Nebraska, Iowa, and other states, invariably begin with me projecting and tracing the river systems and watersheds. In a local restaurant one of my Nebraska maps hangs in the dining room. The locations of the farms and ranches where the chef/owner sources his ingredients are marked, forming a connection and narrative between growers, restauranteur, and diners.

So why this emphasis on regional landscape and humans’ relationship with the natural world? This stems from family history, with my dad being raised on a 3rd generation farm and my mom growing up on a 4th generation ranch. Nature, daily life, and livelihood are of course intimately tethered and interdependent for folks in agricultural communities. In my mind, it’s impossible to separate my grandfather from the ranch he ran over the course of his lifetime. I see that identity as a source of strength and his connection to the land meant he was a good steward.

I’m intrigued by this relationship between identity and the places we inhabit. I’ve started exploring it by layering pencil portraits over vintage maps. Layering is a key part of my process in general but it takes on new meaning when depicting people. As I apply materials on top of one another I imagine I’m depicting the subject’s depth of person; the individual’s history, experiences, personality, an accumulation that builds with time. I’m fascinated by how people develop their sense of place. In this way the map portraits become storytelling tools. 

Thank you.