ANNA WETZEL ARTZ

Jennifer Fernandez (she/her) is a Cuban-American multidisciplinary artist based in Seattle, Washington. She is the recipient of the Edwin T. Pratt Scholarship, a grantee of the City of Seattle's Office of Arts & Culture, and has been the Featured Artist at the Frye Art Museum Store. Her sculptural work has been exhibited nationally.

GO SLOW: 𝙅𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙧, 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨.

JENNIFER: My work is heavily process oriented. Rather than beginning with a meaning for a piece, I allow it to come into being before listening to what it wants to mean. This process is deeply relational. In curating a space for the material and form to take shape, I cultivate a practice of intuitive listening. 

This practice of deep listening dramatically altered the way that I create sculpture in early 2023. To that point I had two separate and distinct practices—I painted and I constructed small sculptures—but they remained disconnected. I felt that I needed a way to bring my painting and my sculpture work into relationship. After some experimentation I found that I could bridge the gap using the material itself. Instead of glaze firing, I use materials used primarily in painting to finish my sculptures—pumice suspended in acrylic medium and acrylic paints. This cold finishing technique allows me to build up certain lines and contours in the piece and it also gives the work a unique texture that I find deeply satisfying. The use of acrylic paint feels like a hand extended between my painting practice and the sculptural form. To my mind they are no longer disjointed disciplines, they now work together to make something singular to me and my practice. 

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙝𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙚 “𝙂𝙤 𝙎𝙡𝙤𝙬” 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙡?

This feels like such a big and important question, particularly for the time we’re living in where there’s such a pervasive expectation of immediacy. This feeling of immediacy sometimes creeps into my process when it comes to materials. Painting with acrylics has made me feel entitled to things drying fast. But the way I make sculptures, using ceramic and pumice medium, requires that I embrace the slowness of drying time. This is an interesting tension because I’m confronted by the materials themselves. They ask for what they need—time, patience, intention. This confrontation is sometimes a reminder to embrace those things in the rest of my life!

In addition to the issue of drying time, the process of finding wood pieces to use in the sculptures I’m currently making requires that I slow down enough to pay attention to my surroundings. Often I’ll find a piece while on a walk with my dog and it’s so easy to get lost in thought while on a walk, to let the stresses of life and ideas of what should come next take over. But if I slow down and quiet my brain, that allows me the mental space to look around me. If I’m able to do that I find pieces to incorporate into my sculptures everywhere I look. Nature wants to be noticed and when I do, there’s always a payoff.

𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙤𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩’𝙨 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙗𝙪𝙯𝙯 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙬?

I recently fell into a deep Ann Hamilton rabbit hole. Learning about her process and digging into her catalog has been feeding me tremendously. More than just being beautiful work it’s given me ideas and permission to explore sculpture on a whole other level – using the body and space to create installations that push me beyond the sculptures I’m doing now. That might be really ambiguous but I think what I’m saying is that she’s been a tremendous inspiration for the work I’ve been putting together.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩?

I’ve got a few installations brewing that are sort of site activations related to the scholarly work I used to do in my previous life as a theology and philosophy professor. It feels really exciting to think of ways to marry my philosophical work around relationality and the sculptural work I’ve been doing. Like I said, Ann Hamilton has been a big part of that. So has the work of Joseph Beuys. I’m really looking forward to fleshing out some of these ideas. It feels like a homecoming of sorts.

W𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠?

Instagram is the best way to see what I’m working on. Occasionally I’ll put out a newsletter which folks can sign up for on my website but I’m most active on Instagram. It feels easiest to focus my attention to one space and Instagram, for better or worse, seems like the space where I’m able to communicate more directly with folks about the things I’m doing.

𝙅𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙧, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙤 𝙎𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩 𝘾𝙡𝙪𝙗 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙝!