Hi, I’m Jenny and I’m fascinated with painting the natural beauty, abundance, and limitlessness of the sky.  Through doing many different kinds of art over the years, I’ve learned a range of skills have come together in my paintings now.  The one constant has been that all of my art was directly linked to my development as a person at the time, so my story really has a lot to do with my art. 

I grew up in Asheville, NC in the Blue Ridge mountains.  From a young age, I loved the peace I felt when spending lots of time in nature.  I also knew early on that I was an artist and that was all I wanted to do.

When I realized there was a path to becoming a professional artist that I could follow, I quit all my extracurriculars, changed high schools for a better art department and developed my first portfolio.  With this, I got into the high school program at the North Carolina School of the Arts and then went on to The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City.  

After growing up in the mountains, New York City was rather a shock.  I didn’t feel comfortable until I began cycling over the Williamsburg Bridge to commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan.  It was like cycling up a mountain and from the summit I could see the sky and the water, I could see the shape of the land and suddenly I knew how I could fit in there.  Still, my final degree show included a large format photographic series about a knitted “room” that I could carry with me and retreat to when I wanted to hide in public space.  

Through the process of making the work, I steadily learned to listen to my internal wishes, and I realized I wanted to travel.  I planned a trip to Europe that seemed impossible at the outset, but I managed to save and raise the money to go.  I traveled to many places, but magically met my future husband in a campground on the Isle of Skye in the Western Isles of Scotland.  He even came to my degree show!

Immediately after graduating I moved the UK, got married within six months, and lived there for another 10 years.  The entire time I lived there I carried on experimenting with different ways to combine 2D images with 3D objects.  I made a whole variety of sculptures, photographs, photographs of sculptures, sculptures with photographs integrated into them, scanned objects, cyanotypes with impressions of 3D objects, and eventually started making resin quilts like the one below.  I exhibited my artwork a lot too. It was a great experience.

During this period of my life, I was sifting through my past and trying to understand it.  I think this is why I was so attracted to mementos and natural forms.  They all had associations attached, so it was like working with a language of memory.

Also around this time, I started having children.  I had three children in three years, and still managed to make art and collaborate with organizations like the Royal Meteorological Society during that time.  However, when I got pregnant with the third, my husband and I realized it was time to move back the US.  There we could access much more space, time in nature, and supportive family.  

We flew to the US with a three year old, a fourteen month old and a newborn.  You can imagine what THAT flight was like!

We settled in Asheville in a log cabin that my grandfather built.  It’s right next door to my childhood home.  This was the perfect place for me to nurture my family and really dig into my creative work.  I had learned by this point that I thrive in a safe, supportive environment.

After the resin quilts I began to make word art to empower myself to change and find peace.  Around this time I began meditating every day – a practice I still keep up now.  This piece below illuminates the words of Deepak Chopra “Who you are is the infinite pretending to be a person.”

Next I started drawing hibernating and sleeping animals.  Drawing them helped me give myself permission to hide away and heal, especially because I literally hid away from my lively family as I was making them.  By this point I had had a fourth child, making a total of four children in five years.

Around this time, my husband was really flourishing with his scale modeling.  He makes fabulous dioramas of military vehicles.  I suddenly had the idea that he could make an airplane diorama in the cathedral ceiling of our log cabin.  When I suggested it, he asked me if I could paint a sky mural.  I thought “Why not?”

So my first sky painting was 30 feet long!  The bottom of it was eight feet in the air!  When I got up on that ladder my whole world opened up.  All of a sudden I felt completely free.  I realized I never wanted to play small again.

Ever since then I’ve been painting skies on canvas and on murals.  At first, it was really about feeling free and the tantalizing feeling of endless opportunity.  Later, as I carried on, they became more about divine connection and inner peace.  I meditate every day and through this I feel a “sky” growing inside me.  Its like an inner space of peace and beauty.  When I paint and it’s flowing, I feel completely aligned, just like I do in my meditation.

Doesn’t that sound good?  If you want to feel this way too, I encourage you to find some sort of spiritual practice you can do every day.  The simplest one is just to look up and enjoy the sky every day.  Let the feeling of peace and abundance fill you up and flow through you.  Make enjoying beauty a daily priority and just see how much your life improves.

Please feel free to use my artwork as a conduit for bringing peace, abundance and beauty into your life.  You can do this totally for free by joining my mailing list.  About twice a month you’ll get to see my creative process unfold in your inbox.  Please feel free to reply and let me know your thoughts!  I love feedback!