Fisterra Studio | Jennifer Chenoweth, Artist

Letter to a young lady

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:27:24 +0000

Dear J. C.,

It has been a pleasure to watch you grow over the last 6 years since I met you. Your family is one of my inspirations for my own dream of family, I did not grow up in a safe or loving family, and it is truly exciting to me to see how your parents care for you, enjoy you, teach you, and encourage your growth. Please count yourself as very fortunate, and don’t take that lightly.

This letter will be too advice-y, but I write it like I am writing a letter to myself at a younger age. I wish I had stronger voices of encouragement and direction in my life then, but I was a troubled kid and it took a while for me to find my way. I’m really curious and persistent though, and the life I searched for and created for myself and my family is unique and delightful, and very worth the effort. I alway follow the scent of what interests me, and that is how I found my way out of the fog of pain, doubt and fear.

Learn how to trust yourself. You will be in many, many situations where You are all you have. You are enough, more than enough. Your body is packed with millions of years of genetic evolution that will help you survive and thrive if you listen to the information it tells you. Your feelings and your instincts have lots of information that your mind uses to make decisions. You need to make decisions based on the next right thing for yourself. You don’t know what is coming far down the path. The best decisions are good for you first, and simultaneously for the people you care about. If it is not good for you, it is not good for them either. So don’t let your decisions be swayed by the manipulation of others. Once you’ve made a decision, it is your will that is the muscle of action. Your will demonstrates your integrity. Whether you choose to act in a way that others judge as good or bad, stand by your actions. Act in a way that you can own your choices.

Your self/body is sacred and unique. Though I can attest that one can heal, you cannot replace your self/body with one that doesn’t hurt. The intimate space of your heart and your sexuality is the most precious thing you have. Know your own value. Pain is a learning tool, but do not cause yourself unnecessary suffering. Sample, experiment, and test everything, so you can learn what interests you and what does not, and make the distinction. Plan to care for your body as if you really want it to last in health 100 more years. There are no shortcuts for eating healthily and exercising. Do not be afraid of hard work. Fight for what is worth fighting for. These things your your family has already taught you, they are very important.

Though there is much writing that summarizes this better, I will try to be brief: show up, do good work, stand by your words, be kind, be curious, ask good questions. All of those things will keep you strong and able to laugh and cry for all that you will come across on your path. These things I learned from reading, talking with friends, and taking risks to get what I want.

Throw your shoulders back, take a deep breath, and feel your own power. You are a free, young woman with more choices about your life and how you live it than any other generation of women. For millions of years, your predecessors have taken the risks, and taken the hits, to create the opportunities and choices you now have at your fingertips. Think big for yourself.

Your friend if ever you need one,

Jennifer Chenoweth

Hell

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:01:44 +0000

Hell, painted sculpture

Oil and charcoal on plasma-cut aluminum, 30″x60″x60″

-click link here to Fisterra’s “In Conversation” blog about making of the Hell, Heaven artworks, scroll down through blog-

Hell, room view

Hell, painted sculpture

Hell, Heaven

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:58:13 +0000

Heaven

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:18:17 +0000

Heaven, painted sculpture

Oil on plasma-cut aluminum, 30″x60″x60″

Paint Domes

admin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:29:41 +0000

Paint domes

House paint on balloons, shown here 36″x80″x80″

Interactive piece for -E.A.S.T.- 2011-

Paint Domes

Arthouse Kids

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:53:05 +0000

Erin Gentry from Arthouse asked me to give a presentation to their summer kids’ camp about sculptural space. So I asked the kids to think about the space between each of us and the space our bodies take up. As a group we can contract, expand, overlap and connect. We drew and measured the space around our bodies.

Vitruvian kids!

Warp and Weave

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:08:59 +0000

Eye contact, a conversation. Names exchanged, a few pleasantries. Enough specific details to remember.

A little thread goes out, a string, a heart string. A connection created by one person being open to another.
Connection is a way in to someone’s story, to his or her experience, from one’s authentic self.
This is where attachment begins, if impermanent. A string between one and another, a line between two points.
But how long the string? Like a thread off the spool. It may unfurl a few inches, maybe feet, maybe long enough to be a great long tangle. Maybe with enough repetition and shared experiences to create a pattern.

Then if we acknowledge the connection between the points, the loop is closed. And then we keep connecting the points and the thread weaves between them. And we busy our hands and cross the points from the original thread, and before we know it, we have a fabric, or as Ledia Carroll’s friend says, the interesting tapestry of life.

We create the fabric of our lives from the connections we make, share and tighten. We create safety nets and community. We can allow ourselves to be vulnerable from the trust that comes from a history of these connections.

My thoughts after a big, good week. Meeting new people, asking for help. Watched these TED videos:

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

And I loved both of these talks. And though that right brain hemisphere experience is beautiful, we sure need the left brain hemisphere to act. It takes both to weave our human experience together.

Attachement without expectation? It is sometimes a shock when the end of the thread releases, but I’m usually glad for the experience. And I’m learning better to let go and trust.

Heaven

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:49:27 +0000

Another thanks to –David Solomon– for curating my work for the show Hell, Heaven in Santa Fe. You can see images of all the works in both shows on his website for –BangGallery–.

Now to get the pieces back to Austin in time for E.A.S.T.! Hope that’s less of an adventure than getting them to Santa Fe.

E.A.S.T. 2011

admin — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:10:12 +0000

–East Austin Studio Tour 2011–

November 12 & 13, 11am-6pm, free and open to the public

November 19 & 20, 11am-6pm, free and open to the public

–Art Alliance Austin– Preview party Thursday, November 10, 7-10p + afterparty. Tickets available on their site: includes catering, bar and DJ, several different shuttled stops, but not the whole tour.

Making it better every year are Fisterra Studio’s guest artists:

-Sebastian Miles-

Be Generous, Buy Art, Meet Gensler

admin — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 03:29:04 +0000

Annie Simpson, Till Death Do Us Part

WHAT: The grand opening of GenerousArt.org will raise money for Amala Foundation, Art Alliance Austin, Austin Child Guidance Center, Austin Creative Alliance, Austin School of Film, Big Medium, Cancer Connection, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, Communities in Schools of Central Texas, Emancipet, Foundation Communities, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Meals on Wheels and More, Mental Health America of Texas, Mobile Art Program, Open Door Preschools, SafePlace, SIMS Foundation, Sustainable Food Center, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

WHO: Featured artists include Stella Alesi, Jennifer Balkan, Jennifer Chenoweth, Eleanor Droll, Virginia Fleck, Carol Hayman, Melanie Hickerson, Felice House, Carolyn Kimball, Suzanne Lewis, Karen Maness, Richard Mansfield, Wells Mason, Emily Moores, L. Renee Nunez, Andrea Pramuk, Judith Simonds, Annie Simpson, and Jade Walker.

Listen to live music by the Robert Kraft Jazz Trio, while browsing and buying one-of-a-kind works of art. Come meet global design firm Gensler and tour their new offices in the W Hotel. Catering by Texas French Bread. Refreshments will be served.

WHEN: Thursday, September 29, 2011 from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

Jennifer Chenoweth, Santa Maria de Fiore

WHERE: Gensler

W Hotel, 3^rd Floor

212 Lavaca Street, Suite 390

Austin, TX 78701

ENTRY: The event is free and open to the public.

ABOUT GENEROUS ART: The online art gallery is dedicated to donating 40% of sales to local nonprofits, and gives 40% to local artists, seamlessly supporting the Austin community.

ABOUT GENSLER: Gensler is an international group of architects, designers, planners and consultants dedicated to the transformational power of design in improving the quality of life in the communities it serves.