“What we have is our experiences.” This phrase captures Jennifer Brickey’s approach and philosophy to her work.
Born in Michigan and moving to Tennessee at 14, Jennifer’s parents were factory workers and their drive to go to work day after day doing the same thing again and again left a lasting impression on Jennifer when it comes to her craft.
As showcased by her pieces, she has a fascination with line, shape, and composition. She finds herself inspired by her parents when she paints, placing line after line, over and over again. There is a meditative quality to her painting: “I work inside the studio and think outside the studio,” she says. “When I go into my studio, I let everything else fall away.”
As a mom, a teacher, and a painter, Jennifer has three full-time jobs. She’s dropped the idea of the perfect studio – often she’s at the kitchen table with a cat sitting at one end of the paper and a child trying to draw at the other. But it is these experiences that shape and inform her paintings: “When you look at my art, I want you to feel it and experience it with your own impressions because these paintings are my experiences documented.”
Jennifer opens a show at the Emporium in November. Additionally, she is presenting a lecture entitled “American Badass Volume 2” on November 7 at 12:30 at Pellissippi State Community College. She will discuss post-modern female painters with personas worthy of the title. You can see more of her work at jenniferbrickey.com
