We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Moss recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I announced at 5 years old that I was going to be an artist, of course like all children that shifted many times over the next few years, but by time I was in 5th grade I was pretty set. At the time being an artist meant painting, but in high school I was able to explore sculpture and time based media like film and animation. I went to university for art and concentrated on sculpture and metalsmithing.

Near the end of my undergrad I had the opportunity to study abroad and had one last elective to take. Looking down the list I saw weaving, which wasn’t something we had at my home university and chose it on a whim. I fell in love with weaving and went down a rabbit hole of other textile techniques, like felting and crochet. This was especially helpful in my first few years out of undergrad, where I had no separate studio and no access to the welding and casting I had done in my metals work.

I decided to get a graduate degree in fibers to continue to expand these aspects of my work. I love using a range of materials and techniques in different ways to express my concepts, and this varied background and skill set across media has been super useful in my work.

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 work consists of sculptural textiles inspired by complexity in the natural world and humanity’s relationship to it. I use a range of techniques to express different elements of this theme. I love how the repeating nature and structural elements inherent in textiles can suggest order and stability, and I work to breakdown or erase that order in my compositions. I use traditional techniques, like weaving, knitting, felting and papermaking, but in non-traditional materials or unconventional combinations to make work that feels both abstract and familiar. I create bodies of work for exhibition, and I often work with arts consultants to translate work into larger compositions or installations for large scale interior projects.

In addition to my studio practice I am an independent curator interested in telling the story of contemporary artists working with textile materials and/or techniques in unconventional ways. I also teach university level courses in fibers and occasionally lead workshops.

I have always found community to be an essential part of my artistic practice. I was a member of an artist collective called Exquisite Corpse Gallery in Kalamazoo, Michigan for a period of time after my undergrad studies. When I moved to Savannah, GA for grad school I was surprised that a larger city with what seemed like a vibrant art scene didn’t have a community studio or other centralized hub for the art scene. Once I graduated and started looking for studio space on my own this became especially clear, and I decided I needed to start a space. I had a lot of lucky chances fall into place, and was able to start Sulfur Studios with two fellow artists. This community art space has grown over the last eight years to host 26 artist studios, an international residency program, two galleries, a darkroom and shop. When I started teaching full time in 2020 I needed to step back from the day to day operations, and we re-organized as a non-profit, Arts Southeast, to continue to build community and support the arts in Savannah. I still serve on the board and I’ve been so proud to see how the organization has flourished in the last few years especially.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Working with the inherent properties of materials also drives my work, and stems from an experience I had as a younger artist. For my undergraduate capstone project I decided to weave all the textiles of a traditional bedroom using metal wire as a way to explore the different values in material and function. I chose fine silver and low carbon steel for my materials purely for color contrast without much thought to the other properties of those materials. I was fortunate to receive a materials grant and was able to execute a full size coverlet in these materials for my exhibition. Within six months however the low carbon steel began to rust. I tried many things to stop the rusting process, from coating with oil and spraying with clear coats. Once the rust set in on the extra fine wire however it was too late. Areas started to break and the project I spent over 100 hours on was disintegrating. In the end I took a small piece and sealed it in a frame to keep, and deconstructed the rest to reclaim the silver. (The one SILVER lining was the fact that in the two years from when I purchased the materials to when I sold it to a refinery the cost of silver had increased substantially, and that became my nest egg to move for graduate school).

That experience is something that stuck with me, and drove me to consider the inherent properties of my materials in the concept of the work I create. When I went to graduate school for fibers the rusting was something I wanted to revisit on my own terms. I explored ways that I could weave with the low carbon steel in combination with natural materials and allowing it to stain the cloth with iron oxide. Using different structures allowed me to create a blue print of where the rust would appear on the surface, but once the process started there was an element of chance in exactly where and how dark the color would appear.

I’ve explored this element of rust and textiles in a few recent bodies of work, and the exploration of inherent qualities of materials has also driven my explorations in knitting, stitching, and stiffening textiles, and most recently in the use of graphite to get a range of surface qualities and exploring sculptural qualities of paper.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me the connection with community is the most rewarding element of being a creative. I love being able to invite folks to my studio and share my process and hear new perspectives about work in progress. I also love receptions and giving artist/curator talks, and the conversations that follow, from fellow artists and from people who don’t consider themselves part of the creative community.

I also love teaching, and seeing both the technical growth of my student’s skills, and the applications they put those new skills to, often far outside my expectations.

Contact Info:

• Website: jenniferemoss.net
• Instagram: @jenniferemoss

Image Credits
Headshot: Molly Hayden All other images my own.