September . Algae as Art

I have been working in my backyard. I have been digging in the garden, cleaning the pond, weeding, pruning, laughing, crying, singing, walking, drinking, eating and generally living life on my 5 acres. I have been spending a lot of time thinking and watching the world around me. I having been waiting for my own Godot. In lieu of Godot showing a myriad of others have arrived. Some visitors are animals and others plants new to me. The algae in the pond has been a vibrant shape shifting visitor. This specific algae that speaks to this months show is only in place for about one month a year. When working on cleaning the pond a few years ago I found the 'hand' of the algae wonderful and began to shape and change, add and subtract, and generally fall in love with the stuff.

 This show explores some of the ideas I mentioned in my last blog about the beauty of decay and transformation. I think it is beautiful in its simplicity. It reminds most people of those paper wasp nests which is such a compliment to me. I have mixed a bit of this and that from the property and manipulated minimally so as to not pull the natural energy from it

With this photo above you are looking at July's show and part of that conversation of beauty and decay. As we follow the birth of something and see it change it writes its own story. As with any fiber piece I have worked on in the last 34 years, I add and subtract from the initial material. I am always hoping to let the natural beauty speak and maintain its simple majestic voice.

This is a wonderful mobile... Impossible to photograph properly here so you will just have to come by for a visit....... Hope to see you soon. Tonight the 6th of September is the opening. 6 to 9 pm 

So much fiber and art and gallery

I have been ever so negligent in getting to my Blog. The new gallery has been such a great space and lit the creative candle for me. Seems that everything else I do still needed to be done. I am hoping to get some older shots of the previous monthly shows uploaded but suffice to say this June I had a swell time shooting some photographs of my lovely nieces in my hand dyed and manipulated fabrics. They were great and generous models.
The leg piece below is called Mikaela and won an award in the RAA photo show in July. I was very happy to have it positively reviewed by an LA juror.

I have been in a conversation about texture and the natural world for a few years now. I have yet to find the vocabulary for explaining my relationship within the natural environment that feeds my soul on a daily basis.

It is crucial for me to walk out into the birth and decay of the woodland. I am held up and reunited with my own inner self when I kick fallen leaves or trim the dying branches of a favorite shrub.

With plenty of friends and family passing on, it is nature that has held my attention and shown me that there is another day and another birth about to take place if I am patient. It has shown me that there is a new beauty worth waiting for, worth getting out of bed for, and worth a beating heart.

I have also in this long process of watching life cycles move on into aging, realized there is beauty in decay. Perhaps it is my own desire to courageously walk into my finale that pushes my intrigue. My eyes are newly opened on many levels. In seeking life I find joy and beauty. In looking around me I see that age brings depth, texture, color, and new surfaces that surprise and adorn.

I am seeking to explore the cycle of life and to show the beauty and common thread within it.

In this photo the girls are wrapped in a few different fabrics and sitting upon their maternal great grandmother's couch that has been redone in hand painted white linen. They have a playful 'boa' around their necks that had wrapped a treasured corset and the orange fabric is still in process for its next stage.

The ideas of the chrysalis,  cocoon, metamorphosis, change and emergence challenge and inform my creative thinking a lot these days.
I like to push the use of things and reinvent. And I would like the reinventing to be of some 'poetic' and universal themes or constructs.

It all feels a bit heady...in so much as I am still trying to explain and explore with not enough time and focus to really create the imagery or words. But I will get there and perhaps publish something to reflect the journey.

For now I am gathering some ideas into the little gallery space and its monthly shows. I hope you can come by and see the next show. And I look forward to having the discussions about what the purpose might or might not be to any of it.

Thanks for your viewing.
There are loads of photos of this photo exhibit should you be interested in more. Just let me know...

FIBER for April's announcement

Fiber

We are swaddled in it, we are buried in it wrapped like mummies or in the satin of a coffin.
Silk heals and hemp constructs.
It warms us and defines us by the clothe upon our back.
And what is rag paper that we have painted upon but the very thing we touch and come back to through generations.
Papyrus for the scholar and for the river banks
Histories have been woven into textiles long before the print and we express through fiber though it will decay with time.
From dust to dust...
yet in between our birth and death fiber allows for wonderful exploration of creativity in the nature surrounding us.



Studio 622 . a gallery . 622 Second St. Eureka . CA 95565  www.chiajenstudio.com

I will be exhibiting creations in fiber, of fiber and on top of fiber for the next year. My inspiration comes from landscapes and textures. Though not a realist, I see my process as closely identifying with the surface structures of all organic things and the natural beauty I wake up to everyday.
The work exhibited will be representing decades of work from textiles created for the fashion industry, interior design projects, sculptural exploration of fabrics, fine art works of mixed media and a bit of poetry.

opening STUDIO 622 an art gallery at 622 Second Street, Eureka, CA

The quiet studio in the redwoods affords me comfort and creative energy. And I have been working in my space since 1985 when we built it. I thrive on the solitude and yet find from time to time it is important to go out into the world to share with others. With this in mind I have decided to rent a gallery space in Old Town Eureka for one year. This will be a year of representing myself with a new show each month exhibiting different themes. I have been all over the map both in mediums used and physically. It all comes from one heart and mind, my own. And I thought it was time I make myself a bit more public and enjoy this beautiful community on the coast of northern California. Even in the setting up of this sweet space I have found good fun in walking along the sidewalks of Old Town and having so much available to me. You must remember I have been based in the marvelous and mysterious woods. So now this ease of walking out my new gallery door and into the quiet urban scene of Eureka is a delight. I think I have the best of both worlds and it should keep the fire light under my creative self for awhile.

Tonight will be my first show. I am starting with textiles as most people know me from that sensibility. I will be adding and subtracting to textiles with watercolors, collages, poetry, sculpture, etc. This is a creative and understated playhouse for me. I invite you to pop in tonight or any Thursday through Saturday from 12-6 pm. I will be firm on those hours beginning May 1st. I am always available by appointment and you are always welcome to set up an appointment to come out and see my artist retreat  in the redwoods.

Please send this on to anyone you think might like to stop in. I have not begun to advertise yet. This was all thrown together on a creative whim.

The best of spring to you!
Jennifer

STUDIO 622
contact:510-318-1351