Jennifer Davies
Night Gaze

Media: Indigo dyed kozo lace, thread
Size: 72" x 48" x 0"
$2000

Artist Statement:
I have always been attracted to all forms of fiber, especially paper. Creating with paper feels like dancing with a partner, the material itself leading me through a series of new steps. I start with an idea but give myself over to a process that is intuitive, and at the best of times, playful.

In the past, as a mark maker, I made many drawings to understand natural form. A pencil and paper were my constant companions. I now use this vocabulary of texture and lines in a more abstract way to make work that suggests images from nature – foam sinking into sand, moonlight on water, and the surfaces of rocks, all of which provide me sources for form and pattern. Along with these references I want my work to have a strong physical presence that expands into multiple associations.

Using handmade paper to realize these natural images has been a perfect fit . I make my own from bark and never tire of the dramatic transformation of coarse stalks into delicate translucent sheets. The preparation is long, but for those of us who enjoy process and a knowledge of our materials it is very satisfying. I use this flexible material in various ways.

Sometimes, as in NIGHT GAZE, instead of pounding the cooked kozo into pulp, I gently pulled the stalks apart to make kozo lace. Since I gravitate toward lacy, open-weave surfaces this lace has been perfect for me to sew the strips into hangings that suggest water and reflections.

My art education trained me in traditional approaches to painting and printmaking. I have felt fortunate to transfer those concepts of color, composition, line and gesture, to papermaking, a medium much more fun, forgiving, and full of surprises.

Biography

Jennifer Davies graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and spent a year in Rome as part of the European Honors Program. Trained as a painter/illustrator, she now works with paper, most often of which she makes herself using both Eastern and Western papermaking traditions. She uses a variety of fiber techniques, such as dyeing, sewing, and wrapping to make textured objects. A reoccurring theme in her work is the woven circle, often done on hula hoops or larger rings. After a net has been woven, it is dipped repeatedly in a bath of pulp yielding lacy webs that are sewn together in layers. Another way she uses pulp is to cast directly onto granite rocks, bark, or into molds of fungi.

She has studied papermaking at Carriage House and Women's Studio Workshop and has taught the technique. Solo shows have been at City Gallery, in New Haven, and The Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, Georgia, among others. In addition to many group shows in the Northeast, her work has been included in traveling exhibits such as Fiberart International, and The Paper Runway. She is a member of City Gallery, a co-operative gallery in New Haven; The Friends of Dard Hunter, a group devoted to hand papermaking, and Surface Design Association. In 2012 she was awarded a Connecticut Artist Fellowship Grant to further her opportunities and experience in the field of Fiber. In recent years she has completed a number of commissions for overseas hotels and residences.