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Jennifer Leah Collins
Oil Paintings
Artist's Statement
For the last four years I have been exploring a metaphorical approach to landscape.  In the paintings you see here, I have been looking at the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm, as well as the effect of the passage of time on our interpretation of a place.  The subject matter comes from traveling and responding to places I feel a connection to.  This landscape, this earth, is our home.  The forests are the cathedrals; the fields are the banquet halls; the clouds and sky are an ever changing ceiling and the rivers and streams are the paths that keep us all flowing.  This place is so familiar to us, yet still so mysterious.  There is as much to learn from the vastness of the starry sky as there is from a small stone picked up out of a stream, or a single leaf held in the hand.  We live here, but we long for something more.  Our souls hunger for the eternal.  I believe that the eternal is here, right now in the present.  If we pay attention we can catch glimpses of its fire everywhere, burning through the windows in the spaces between things.
Artist's Resume

EDUCATION

  • MFA, Painting, Radford University, Radford, VA, May, 1995.
  • BFA, 2D Studio Art, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, May, 1992.
  • Art history study tour in Italy, January, 1991.

 WORK EXPERIENCE

  • Assistant Professor of Art, Radford University, Radford, VA, 1996/1997, 1999-2001 fall, 2002 fall, and 2003 fall - present.
  • Art Instructor, New River Community College, Dublin, VA, 1998 through 2000.
  • Art Museum Educator, Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA, summer-fall, 1995.
  • Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Radford University, Radford, VA, 1993-1995.
  • Assistant Art Director, Camp Kippewa, Monmouth, ME, summer, 1994.
  • Academic Advisor, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Radford University, 1992/93.
  • Gallery Assistant, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, 1990-1992.

 SELECTED RECENT EXHIBITIONS

2005

  • "Above, Below, and Through", Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA; a solo exhibit.

2004  

  • "Architecture of the Soul", The Caldwell Arts Council, Lenoir, NC, a four person exhibit.
  • Radford City Art Show, a juried exhibit, Radford University Art Museum. Best in show.
  • "Field and Sky", DeGraaf Fine Art, Saugatuck, MI, a solo exhibit.
  • Altered Space Artist's Cooperative group exhibit, Reynolds Homestead, Critz, VA.

2002 

  • "Up to the Mountain, Down to the River", Wildcat Creek, Meadows of Dan, VA, a two person exhibit with Charlie Brouwer.
  • "Microcosm/Macrocosm", DeGraaf Fine Art, Saugatuck, MI, a two person exhibit with Charlie Brouwer.
  • "From These Hills", a regional juried exhibit, William King Regional Arts Center, Abingdon, VA.
  • "Microcosm/Macrocosm", Altared Space, Floyd, VA, a two person exhibit with Charlie Brouwer.

2000 

  • "Genetically Speaking", DeGraaf Fine Art, Saugatuck, MI, a two person exhibit with Charlie Brouwer.
  • "Luminous Things", Perspective Gallery, Blacksburg, VA, & Altared Space, Floyd, VA, a two person, two gallery exhibit with Charlie Brouwer.

1999 

  • Roanoke City Art Show, a juried exhibit, Art Museum of Western Virginia.
  • "Together Again", Altared Space, Floyd, VA, a two person exhibit with Charlie Brouwer.

1998 

  • Mayfair Festival of the Arts, a national juried exhibit , Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA.
  • Solo exhibit, Blacksburg Community Center, Blacksburg, VA.
  • "Together", Altared Space, Floyd, VA, a two person exhibit with Charlie Brouwer.
  • "Still Life", a solo exhibit, Piedmont Arts Association, Martinsville, VA.
  • "Mid-Atlantic New Painting `97", a juried exhibit, Mary Washington College Galleries,  Fredericksburg, VA.

1996

  • "Meaning and Metaphor", a juried exhibit, Perspective Gallery, Blacksburg, VA.
  • "NOTORO", an exhibit of work created at the NOTORO International Art Symposium, Art Academy of Gdansk, Poland.

 EXHIBITION RECORD SUMMARY

    A total of 50 exhibitions since 1991: 9 solo, 8 two person, 15 juried and 18 group exhibitions.

    Work has been exhibited in the U. S. in Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington and internationally in Poland.

 GALLERY REPRESENTATION

  • DeGraaf Fine Art, Saugatuck, MI
  • Savannah Fine Arts, Savannah, GA
 
© Jennifer Collins 2005