We caught up with the brilliant and insightful visual artist Jennifer Mack-Watkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I began learning about printmaking in high school growing up as a young artist in South Carolina. I fell in love with the process and took a few classes during my undergraduate studies at Morris Brown College in Atlanta. I had the opportunity to take classes at Clark Atlanta University where I learned how to carve for the first time ever. I enjoyed understanding how to use tools and how the marks I made would look different depending on the materials I chose to use. I later went on to study Printmaking as a major and received my MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. After graduating I continued to learn additional techniques at Printmaking workshops such as Lower Eastside Printshop and Manhattan Graphics.I would change nothing about learning the medium. When I did have a chance to learn whether it was with an institution, workshop, or travel it felt like a discovery. I do wish I had learned all the possibilities of careers I could choose from in the area of print. I would probably participate in internships or residencies in the area of printmaking to practice outside the classroom. I feel that the most important skill is how to market your prints so that your prints can reach internationally. Representation of a gallery or a art manager is essential so that you can just focus on creating. It is so important to understand the business side of it as well. I feel the obstacle to learning the business of art was that I didn’t have any connections to the art world while studying. It isn’t until recently I have begun to make connections.
Jennifer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Jennifer Mack-Watkins, and I am a contemporary visual artist, printmaker, illustrator, and community builder who is greatly influenced by Japanese Mokuhanga printmaking techniques and growing up in the South. My artwork investigates societal conformities that isolate individuals to be confined to fit into a space. This space includes the complexities of being a woman, beauty images, relationships, body image, power, and gender roles. My current body of work, celebrates the beauty, importance, and complexity of the positive representation of African-American children in literature, media, and pop culture. I am interested in using aesthetics as a form of resistance against the erasure and invisibility of African-American culture. Lately, I have been delving into themes of children in space, not only represent a physical space but also a mental space where there is a sense of freedom to imagine and see the world as place of endless possibilities where boundaries don’t exist.
I use my passion to create art as a way to bring people together to experience the artmaking process and to provide the feeling of hope. Through social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook I share my journey, process, proud moments, discoveries, and enjoyment of being a printmaker. In addition to creating art, The services I also provide workshops and demonstrations that showacase the Japanese Woodblock technique educating audiences about this unique process. I travel to provide workshops,art talks, book signings, and virtual/in-person classes. I take enjoyment in helping clients to build community through my consulting services where I brainstorm and curate program experiences that involve the arts, cultural refercences, and history. I am able to solve their problems by having understanding of their vision and matching it their projected outcome.My ability to combine my artistic skills, knowledge,personal experience, and programming capabilities sets me apart from others in my field. With over 15 years of teaching museum and insitution settings really makes what I do as an artist stand out. I am able to use themes and provide a sequential vision of how to execute the experience to fits the needs of the audience. I am most proud of my ability to research to find information that will be key in completing the task or project.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
My journey as a creative involves me embracing that my vision of how I see the world is meaningful and valuable in so many ways. At times I have to leave home to promote my practice as a professional artist. The amount of time,travel, energy, and organization of ideas that it takes when working on projects or exhibitions requires me to be able to share what I do in various locations and spaces outside of the studio. Through my practice I am able to envision the future through programming that celebrates the arts. That future involves seeing things that don’t exist and making them a reality. I listen to my client’s needs and hopes through my consultation services or make a work of art that can inspire. It can be tiresome at times and causes me to remember to take small mental breaks. At times you can work so hard on something and all your plans can be wiped away because of misalignments that happen along the way. The most important part is realizing when there is no longer a partnership and the benefits of working together are no longer an option. At this time this becomes the hardest thing to do is to walk away from a diminished vision that hasn’t become a reality. A vision unbirthed and remains a seed unable to grow. I find outlets by being able to come up with solutions by being a board member of organizations and institutions that acknowledge my gift as a creative.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an visual artist is that you can visualize the flawed world through your own lense. The work I create allows me to express from a utopian perspective, past, or future. I can determine by the work I produce to make connections to my own experience and the everyday lives of people. I love to incorporate history, and research, and use my own life as inspiration. There are no rules when creating my artwork which allows me a sense of freedom.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jennifermwatkins.com
- Instagram: mack_jenniferprints
- Facebook: Jennifer Mack-Watkins
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-mack-watkins-b-a-m-a-t-mfa-bb2941200?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BqlwfFxV3S0GttAd68wizzQ%3D%3D
Image Credits
Studio Shot ( screen and squeegee) Michael Schalk Headshot- Lizzie Brooks Yee