Featured Artist Lisa Jennings

Lisa Jennings shares a portfolio of nature-inspired art and sculpture made with found objects and mixed media. View more of her art by visiting her website.

 

 

Art was my first love. I knew as a child that I was destined to be an artist.

 

 

My mother, also an artist, was my first teacher. Both my parents were creative; my father was always playing music or singing, while my mother was making art. I would sit quietly next to my mother as she would work. As I got older, we created side by side. My second love, both as a child and to this day, is being outside as well as a fascination with birds.

 

 

Most of the themes in my work have a very organic, natural look. I am inspired by my fond memories of riding my bike with my younger brother. We would leave early in the morning to roam the nearby creeks and woods. In the evening, we would come home with all our treasures of wood, stone, clay and other found objects.

 

 

Those things never went to waste—mom would show us how to incorporate them into some kind of craft project that would, in turn, become a gift for the holidays.

 

 

These memories are the foundation on which I create my pieces today!

 

 

I’m still that child at heart. I search and find natural objects, such as stones and wood for my sculptural pieces and at times I am gifted large wood logs from friends. I never knew that I was going to be a sculptress until my husband, also an artist, pointed out that my two-dimensional work appeared three-dimensional because of all the fiber in the papers I used in my paintings.

 

 

I began sculpting when I was in my late thirties. My husband first taught me how to sculpt in stone and then how to sculpt wood to be able to create taller, figurative pieces.

 

 

My paintings are as unique as my sculpture. I create all my own pigmented papers with liquid acrylics on Japanese mulberry paper. I love all forms of printing and use the process of batik resist as well. The papers are then torn, sometimes sewn, and then glued onto the canvas with matte medium. I create a synergy between my sculpture and paintings by using some of the pigmented papers on my sculptures.

 

 

Although I am a gifted teacher, in recent years I have been unable to teach because I am caring for my family. In the past, I traveled to all parts of the world and taught my mixed media journaling process on those trips. My goal in the next year or two is to travel and teach on trips abroad. There is nothing more wonderful and memorable than using organic matter and creating on site with a group of other creatives while traveling.

 

Artist Lisa Jennings invites you to follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

 

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