Artist Statement

Jennifer Nelson is a unique and gifted artist who works in a variety of mediums to create a body of work that displays a diversity of style.  As she would say, she didn’t ‘become’ an artist, but has always been an artist, drawing, constructing, and creating since she can remember.  She has 9 years of formal training beginning in high school with classes at Atelier Lack through earning a BFA degree from University of Minnesota, Duluth.

What motivates my art is the visual stimulus that’s all around me every day… sometimes a light/shadow situation – could be in the woods, in the city… sometimes a color combo, I like –for example, a red door frame with pale green siding… it could be about texture, stucco next to wood; all of that interests me in some way or another. I want to capture the essence or mood of it. A single frame from a movie can give me a composition that I love and want to capture in an art piece.

The range can speak to the different moods that a person has – everyone gets interested in different things – going to lectures, seeing different cities and locations, participating in activities or hobbies.

If you take my whole body of work – you’ll find that I’m interested in the same things over and over again – but the mediums have different moods…

I know that there is a common aesthetic throughout all my pieces.  I’m interested in color, form, composition, texture, complexity, and scale. My use of color - I tend to like blended color – gradations that are beautiful to me – and that might be the common thread. But you’ve got to take each piece of art on its own.

My art is an expression of freedom, and a delight in the activity – even some of the struggle with the activity. I love watching what emerges and what comes out – and creating what I want to say as I go along. Sometimes it gets expressed in a statement that says “never ever put down your brush” – which emerged in a piece a while back. I’ve done another series, more Asian in essence, about water (Love), and fire (Passion). Another of my pieces asks, ‘Are you Rock?’, or Are you water? – one who stands still or one who flows? Another one was “we are all one, there is no separation”, which is a theme that I tend to consider all the time – perhaps my own self discovery and journey.