jennyarntzen.art

Creative people need constraints. We are in a time of wide-spread emotional dis-regulation and destructive behaviour. Our creativity creates an outlet for hope to activate our lives and our solutions.

  I worked late at my art desk last night. I was putting together the first mail package of cards and getting a feel for how my production ideas will work in the real world. I am changing the name of the project from 'Regift Card' to simply 'Gift Card'. The card is the gift. It is an original artwork mounted as a custom, one-of-a-kind card. The card provides a conveyance of both the importance of the feeling we want to share, but it also makes the moment of giving and receiving the card important. It makes this moment of sharing special and impactful.  When the time comes to give the card away, it will gain importance and significance with each gifting event. The artwork, and the card that is carrying it, will gather strength and meaning over time. When a drawing is ready to be given as a gift, it gets mounted to a card with page leaves inside. I input the information about the artwork into an art inventory table. The artwork is mounted onto custom cut cardstock. The pa...

  The concept behind Regift Cards is that original artworks make a more significant, impactful impression than reproductions (prints). Original artworks are intended to be kept and re-gifted over time. Printed cards are intended to be disposable.  If the concept goes according to plan, these original art cards will build up a history of exchanges over time. These exchanges will be recorded in the leaves of the card, like a guest book, but instead of recording sentiments from one event, the leaves in these cards record sentiments over many exchanges.  I haven't actually seen anything like this before, so I am making it up as I go along. On the one hand, a card has one area inside to convey the sentiments of the sender to the receiver. On the other hand, a guest book has many pages to capture comments from attendees at a memorable event. A regift card has original art on the front and extra page leaves inside to record multiple giving. It is like a thin guest book with orig...

  Graphite, pencil crayon, ink wash, wax crayon on paper 7 1/2" x 11" These small art-sized cards (or card-sized artworks) are starting to make sense in terms of supporting my growing philosophical value of caring.  I draw portraits from my surroundings. They reveal a sensibility, a felt-sense, that emerges, over time, through many layers, through the process of drawing. This felt sense is informed by my subject, in this case, my constant companion, Adele. It is also informed by my own state-of-mind, or state-of-being, an expression of the ineffable experience of being human, being female, being 68 years on earth. They express these experiences over many days of coming back to the drawing. With each layer, a slightly different form emerges, a different expression, a variation on the original impulse and gesture. Each layer of mark-making and ink wash adds depth, but also broadens perspective. The additional layers don't lock my subject into a static pose. Instead, they su...

  Graphite on paper 11" x 7 1/2" It was Sparrow's 15th birthday yesterday and I was thinking about life starting anew and life starting over.  In this drawing Adele was sitting at the window watching passersby on the street, and also checking on what I was up to inside the house. The expression in her eyes conveys the trepidation I feel at the moment of making this drawing. This is the first layer of graphite to layout the basic shapes and sizes of things in the picture. It also reveals my internal state, as my subconscious applies pressure to emphasize unspoken feelings as I consciously strive to render a recognizable subject. Windows are literal thresholds. They indicate the edge between interior and exterior spaces. They symbolize possibility, "when one window closes, another window opens" and they can also symbolize caution, "I'm not going out there today".  My sense of position in relation to the window changes day to day and moment to moment....

  Graphite, ink wash, pencil crayon, wax crayon on paper - 11" x 7 1/2" I was out walking Adele one sunny day and this tabby cat was lounging on the walkway. He didn't run away as we passed, so I took the opportunity to capture his image for reference. I got the first layer of graphite, crayon and ink down and then made no further progress for several weeks as Mom's health deteriorated and I had to focus on taking care of her. Now Mom is gone and I am making sense of this new experience, where I no longer have her to take care of and my time and my day is mine to organize. My life without caring for Mom is mine to piece together. Today is the first day I have been able to take up my drawing and painting materials again and get lost in curiosity about how this work will turn out. It is very comforting to sit at my art desk with the rain and wind of an atmospheric river pelting outside. The cat is on the edge of something, an unknown space lies ahead. The cat is crouche...