Jennifer Joy Loop is an artist and educator who has spent most of her life in the Pacific Northwest. She finds herself drawn to connectivity through our shared humanity and the valuable role that creativity plays in building community.

 

Jennifer believes our visual surroundings have a deep and sacred impact on who we are and how we interact with our world. They have the power to root us to moments and memories. She has long been in the process of recognizing a component of nostalgia in her work. Though it may not be immediately recognizable to others, her own memories and moments surface in the mugs, vases, wall hangings, prints, paintings, and even her classroom demonstrations.

 

In this season of identity as a mother, she creates work alongside her quickly growing and changing children and has found the feeling of nostalgia intensified in herself as she creates and in everyday moments. Jennifer describes this feeling as "instant nostalgia," a deep sense of memories and moments in the process of being made. For her, there is an acute awareness of the fleeting and changing nature of ourselves and our lives, lived out in the day to day routines of growing children. 

 

The medium of clay requires moments of slowness and intention, though for Jennifer those moments are often situated between shouts of "Mom, what can I have for a snack?" and "Mom! Can you help me?!" They may also include quieter moments shared with a child working by her side, or her cat on her shoulders. The process of creating in clay allows for reflection throughout and in between daily life. As an artist and especially as an art educator, Jennifer explores and utilizes a wide range of media, but finds herself consistently preferring the company of clay. Over time she has realized that the process itself suits her own needs, and that is enough of a reason for her to prefer it.

This selection of works showcases a broad range of Jennifer's imagery "palette." Floral imagery, seen primarily in her mugs and wall pieces, relates to experiences in her formative years of accompanying her own mother and grandmother in their gardens, and eventually a patch of earth alongside children of her own. The disembodied hands are meant to evoke an emotional response tied to the ideas of tending, nurturing, and holding something close.

 

The "quilted" work, seen in a variety of forms, connects to both Jennifer's own grandmother’s tradition of quilting and nods to the role quilting and textile work has played throughout our broader history as humanity. Though she does not find herself handy with needle and thread, even with the aid of a sewing machine, the tedious and contemplative nature of carving and forming the quilted surface through painting is her way of engaging with the tradition of quilting and textile work.

 

Quilting, tending the earth, and even ceramics itself have all historically been seen as "women's work" and specifically as craft. This type of work has been labeled in such a way that diminishes craft, often in an attempt to demean the beauty and impact of the work.  In our capitalistic reality, time is money and the ways of craft are at odds with our current societal framework. Taking time means making time, but we have hardly any to give, take, or make as we are squeezed from all sides by the pressures of daily life. It takes Jennifer an entire afternoon to paint a single pair of quilted mugs, time that resists the logic of productivity, hours that in another framework might be measured only in what they cost or produce, rather than what they hold.

 

In her work as an educator Jennifer sees people being drawn to craft and making, and she believes there is a reason. Whether someone considers themselves "artistic" or not, we are all makers of a sort at heart. Craft allows us to explore that possibility and to bring beauty into our everyday experiences.  This in turn forces us to pause and consider what might be dismissed as a mere moment, things like making the bed, pouring coffee, putting on your coat for the day. When objects connected with these daily rituals are embellished with our creativity and humanity through craft, they infuse a new awareness of the vitality of moments lived over and over, yet often forgotten.

 

Jennifer hopes you enjoy her work, that it evokes a memory or two for you, and that it encourages you to explore ways you might be curious about crafting, creating and making something yourself, no matter how small.