We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenny Ink a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jenny, appreciate you joining us today. Do you have an agent or someone (or a team) that helps you secure opportunities and compensation for your creative work? How did you meet, why did you decide to work with them, why do you think they decided to work with you?
I decided to focus on developing my artistic practice professionally during the pandemic. At the same point in time I’d had a life changing car accident and needed to pivot from hospitality management.
It’s been a learning curve & I’m still in the beginning stages
Attending the Hamptons Fine Art Fair in 2022 I had the good fortune of meeting with a Gallerist team from Artio Art Gallery a mother daughter team based out of Toronto.
I was invited to show with them shortly thereafter.
They are a dynamic duo, fellow artists and very proactive in supporting & promoting artists especially empowering women in the arts and emerging talent breaking through in the contemporary art market
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My undergrad years I spent as a paid intern working at an NPR affiliate while attending UB. I put myself through school & graduated with a Bachelor’s in Communications with a minor in Fine Arts from SUNY Buffalo as well as an Associates in Ad Design from FIT.
Shortly after graduation I was hired by UNLV as the Development Director of KUNV radio. The GM at the time is still one of my biggest creative influences.
It was the early 90’s and we were the top alternative college station in the country as rated by CMJ for 5 consecutive years. It was life changing & formative.
It whet my appetite for punk rock during which time I obtained my FCC license and hosted a morning drive radio program ‘ Jennifah-oh-Jenny show. That GM left to start the Salt Institute in Maine and continues to inspire me.
Fast Forward 30 years … a cross country move, a few career changes, becoming a single parent & autism advocate … who knew those formative years would be a continuing catalyst to my art career as well???
After a terrible car accident during the shutdown I pivoted once again & began focusing on developing my art & art studio as a full time practice.
One of my first figurative series to gain recognition and be shown internationally is my Punk series.
Music, people, cities I’ve visited & I have crossed paths with thanks to my years in the entertainment sector continually resurface in my work.
My artistic practice continues to evolve, as a mixed media artist who primarily started out with figurative works I realized the basis of all my creations were abstract pieces. I started working with abstract art after a trip to NOLA in 2022.
As a NY based, mixed media artist, I’m known for multilayering & deconstructing subject matter. My artwork style is most recognized for both Contemporary Figurative & Abstract Works that are often hybrid pieces highlighting textural elements, vibrant colors, energetic brush strokes and somewhat chaotic palette knife markings.
This summer I won an international open call with Artio Art Gallery and showed with them at One Art Space in Tribeca. I was then offered representation + invited to participate in the Women in Art Biennale London Edition 2024.
I keep showing work and aligning myself with other artists and galleries who inspire me.
After showing in London I did a week long workshop at a studio in NOLA ; ‘Beyond the Medium’ under the tutelage of abstract painter Jason Hackenwerth.
These experiences have been huge catalysts to my current bodies of work and my practice.
I’m very much looking forward to see what developments unfold over the next few years in my trajectory.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Being that I’m still in the emerging stages of artist development I highly recommend getting outside of your own ‘bubble’
So you can break barriers and develop your own style. It’s important to support other artists and become a part of a bigger artist community.
With algorithms continuously changing and evolving on social media it’s hard to stop being force fed similar things in repeat.
The best way to grow in my opinion is to shut off the phone. To go out and participate in classes and workshops. If you are given the opportunity to travel and take yourself outside of your daily obligations to just focus on your work. It’s amazing what you can do, learn & grow. It all feeds into a bigger organic arts organism and practice.
I also highly recommend KaraBullockArt.com
It has offerings for artists by artists at all stages in a great variety of mediums.
No matter where you live or what your pace is. The classes are top notch. Both Virtual & In Person are available.
Take the classes to learn new techniques and see where your style evolves. Not copy but put your spin on what you’re being shown and adapt it to create your own way of doing things.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
After moving back to NY I worked corporate until it ate my soul. Fortunately I had an opportunity to work in hospitality for a few years tending bar + managing and overseeing operations at my brothers Irish Pub. The schedule was grueling however the close proximity afforded me some newfound freedom to create art part time.
After 6 years, my brother had done a turn key sale on the pub. I found out during the shutdown that within a week I would be unemployed.
At that same time I was in a horrific car accident. A young girl was driving at extremely excessive speed ran a stop sign and T-boned me. Totalling my car, herniating every disc from my neck to my tailbone, smashing my knee and tearing my hip. They had to pull the door off the car to get me out.
While receiving chiropractic treatment for my injuries the doctor treated me very aggressively and I wound up back in his office crying because something was wrong. I remember yelling in pain at that follow up adjustment.
Also at this time I fell victim to a phishing scheme and was being hacked. I had to change my emails and my phone number, I began suffering from anxiety attacks and came close to a nervous breakdown. While attempting to get my laptop & devices fixed, I passed out twice at the electronics store.
I was rushed to the ER by ambulance and hospitalized for a week with a retroperitoneal hematoma ; suffering from massive internal bleeding. I was told by a team of doctors I could have died & that it would be hard to pinpoint the cause on the chiropractic treatment I’d received.
I should mention I’m also a single parent of a young adult with autism who functions between 7-14 years old.
It was an all time low.
I realized that day how tomorrow is not guaranteed & I had to muster all my inner strength to forge ahead.
Art saved my life and my sanity. It allowed me to pivot, heal and gave me purpose & hope again.
Truthfully it was with me all along I just never had the impetus to try to make a career from it.
I think this specific set of unfortunate circumstances forced me to really see the big picture.
My daughters autism diagnosis came during elementary school despite having numerous indications & interventions during her preschool years. Moving across country in that time frame delayed her diagnosis.
Twenty years ago we weren’t as knowledgeable as we are now. I had no idea what the tell tale indicators of autism were. Today there are far more resources and awareness.
We still have a long way to go in advocating & assisting these individuals with developmental disabilities.
As a parent we all want what is best for our children and we put their needs ahead of our own. With atypical functioning skills although it’s difficult most children can flourish with even a little support, they become independent and create opportunities and lives of their own. It’s our natural cycle.
There are so many facets to autism. My daughter is high functioning. I am fortunate to live in NY where my daughter has a team of people through OPWDD and receives network of supports through the state that I’ve had to work incredibly hard at & diligently to educate myself about what opportunities exist so that she someday she might be able to function & even more hopefully thrive with assistance.
The struggle for her independence is real and it falls on me….it could very well be a pipe dream. It’s also one that I continually make sacrifices for.
Often times I need to stop everything and devote all of my attention and energy to her needs.
Some of the same needs she had as a 7 year old with her daily living skills, organizational, social and executive functioning skills are still & probably always will be present. It’s not a typical life progression like her peers. It is also permanent and requires a lifelong commitment and planning.
She had a 1:1 aide throughout school and didn’t begin receiving OPWDD services till post graduation. I did not realize she was eligible until her junior year of high school & the application process is difficult at best. It took 5 years during the shut down to continuously submit applications and medical assessments to obtain services for her. She is an only child and I was uncertain as to who fathered her and I never pursued paternal testing as the prospects were now ashamedly numerous, obtuse &/or grim. There is no one listed on her birth certificate for this reason.
Parents of people with developmental disabilities face a very grim set of circumstances in that our kids as they ‘age out’ beyond 21 into what is legally considered adulthood. Facing challenges most are not equipped to with expectations to function as a typical adult. Planning for their futures, establish guardianship or power of attorney is paramount and excruciatingly difficult.
Our unique set of circumstances are even more dire.
I know I’m making great strides in my art career however I continually have to slow down and press pause sometimes passing on opportunities altogether given the parameters of these constraints.
Nothing is easy.
Patience is a virtue. Family first
Be a good person, role model & parent. I strive to empower women because I know first hand that our struggles are numerous, very real and statistically not in our favor.
I know that if I continue to be true to myself, my artistic practice will thrive no matter how long it takes me to ‘succeed’.
I do what I love and I am at the beginning of a promising art career….no matter how long it takes I am finding my voice through my art.
Perhaps, by my example, & by helping her to achieve some form of assisted independence at some point in her lifetime my daughter will be able to create a fulfilling path and thrive.
Until then, I will find a way to strike a balance in my old age successfully navigating my family obligations with my creative endeavors honing & continually evolving the happy mistakes on this journey putting forth an artistic body of work I can be proud of & was born to make.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jennyinkart.com
- Instagram: @paintedladystudiojennyink