Jen Rose: The Unnameable Monster of the American Psyche

“ARTIST STATEMENT

I breathe creativity into my work by evolving, changing and never being satisfied. If I am too comfortable, I might change my location, my medium or my subject matter. This approach enables me to flow between mediums such as vinyl, ceramics, and video allowing the concept and the medium to partner for an intense visual experience.Perhaps the most constant theme that endures is the idea of multiplicity. My brain tingles when I see forms and images in endless quantities. If you were around in the early 1980s, you might remember the “Generic aisle” at the grocery store. For a short period of time, all generic items had black and white, text-only labels that created a wonderland of repetition. This unintended “art installation” in my small town made a profound impression on my concepts of beauty and order.My use of multiplicity in non-traditional craft media began after the unexpected loss of my father. In response to my grief, I created an exhibition of one thousand octopus tentacles that projected from the wall. Hand-making each porcelain tentacle created a meditative studio experience that gave my mind room to heal during the 12-month process of making this piece.I learned some core lessons about my studio practice when I returned to clay in 2015. I learned that creating multiples and assembling them into installations allows me to work in small bursts throughout the day. I don’t need a large window of time to create work and this makes me impressively productive. I learned that process is critical to my practice and I enjoy developing the process just as much as seeing the finished product. I also learned that freedom comes from structure. I generally see the finished installation in my mind before I ever step into the studio, but the structure and routine required to execute the piece balances my mind.For Dallas-based Jen Rose, art is a practice of constant experimentation: question everything. This philosophy is apparent in the diversity and volume of her output, as is her tenacity and devotion to technically difficult materials. But, it is her use of multiples that persists through her evolving bodies of work.

Dallas-based Jen Rose is a Texas native, born and raised in San Angelo. She received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of North Texas in Denton in 2002. She held a faculty position at Richland College for nine years before becoming her own boss at Bee Cups LLC, which utilizes a patent pending UV-reactive glaze that she developed to aid in attracting pollinators. She exhibits her artwork regionally and nationally and has received multiple honors, including Innovation of the Year Recipient at the League of Innovation conference in SanFrancisco, CA in 2016. Her work is in the corporate art collections of Baylor Hospital and Hilltop Securities inDallas, TX.