Artist Q+A with Jen Smith of Jen Ann Handmade
Jen Smith of Jen Ann Handmade is a fiber artist who creates striking, multi-layered compositions using rich, bold colors with a unique approach to mark-making leveraging a wide spectrum of fibers.
Join Jen this May in Évora, Portugal to learn all about her approach to fiber collage with weaving, embroidery, and beading techniques.
But first, let's get to know a little more about her..
How did you make the transition from a more business-oriented career to a more creative career with Jen Ann Handmade?
After several years living and working in Santa Monica, California, my boyfriend and I had a chance to move an hour north of LA to a ranch in a beautiful remote canyon. I had a lot of conflicted emotions because I loved living in Santa Monica, but this was an opportunity we saw as a necessary step forward, so we packed up and made the move.
Shortly after moving, I saw an embroidery pattern that appealed to me while scrolling through Etsy. It struck me as something fun to do to occupy my time in my new quieter, rural life. All it took was completing one pattern, and I was hooked. That led to me designing and selling my own patterns. From there, it snowballed to where I am now. What started as a creative outlet–a way to be productive with a lot more quiet time–ended up becoming an unexpected new path. And here we are.
What else or who else has had a strong influence on your work?
There are many amazing fiber artists I love. Sheila Hicks (@hastingshicks on Instagram) is a big, big one. She’s had a significant career, and you can see her influence and techniques in the work of many artists.
One of my very first embroidery loves was Danielle Clough (@fiance_knowles on Instagram). Her work is colorful, unusual and distinctive and always stops me in my tracks. You don't see anyone else doing anything like she does. I also love Katrina Sánchez (@fiberess on Instagram). She uses knitting, weaving and knots as part of her process, and again, her work is super distinctive.
I really admire artists who throw out the rules and use that to find their own voice. I love the work of Lisa Smirnova (@lisa_smirnova on Instagram). She embroiders. She does amazing paintings. She paints on clothing. She just has such a distinct and unique voice and brings something truly different to her work.
Tell us about your childhood and how that has influenced you becoming Jen Ann Handmade.
My mom was a home economics major in college so my brothers and I were raised baking, cooking, sewing, cross stitching, and crafting–it was just part of our family ethos. My mom was really keen on us collaborating and making homemade gifts for people during the holiday season. She taught us to add personal touches to make special things that were not only gifts but would become treasured keepsakes.
My father is a photographer focused mostly on sports photography and nature photography. I went to lots of sporting events with him growing up, and it really stuck with me how he looked for and captured special moments.
You have done a lot of really fun collaborations and commissions in your time as an artist. How do these usually come to you? What have you loved and learned from different commissions?
Your work is very color forward. How did you learn color theory and how did you develop your overall approach to color?
I have no formal training in color theory. I didn’t go to art school. But I know what gets my heart. When I first started using embroidery patterns, I would often go to the store for the recommended colors, but would find myself wanting to adjust some of them and “turn them up to 11.” Instead of sticking with a neutral, I’d swap it out for hot pink. Changing up color and introducing brighter hues really inspired me.
In my daily life, I’m constantly on the look out for color palettes in unexpected places. I respond to groups of colors and like to capture them and revisit them when the right project comes up. I might see a cobalt blue with an unexpected color, and I’ll photograph or screenshot it for future reference because I’ll know it’s something I want to explore later.
When you think about how you plan your pieces, how does color factor into your process and planning?
I always start with color and texture. With my recent pom pieces, I’ve been starting out by making a few poms in a variety of colors and textures. They serve as a paint palette for me, and I like to start this way because it’s pretty low entry. I can take what I would probably consider a pretty wild and crazy combination of colors and quickly see how they work together. Then I can ask myself questions: Do I want to lean into one color or make this more multi-colored? Do I have enough texture? Does it need more white, cream, or negative space? Sometimes I incorporate macrame cord because it’s neutral in color, but it also has a bulky and wild texture compared to yarn. So yeah, I try to start with a set of materials that have a good mixture of color and texture, then let it evolve from there.
To date, as far as I know all of my commissions have come through Instagram, and I’ve done a lot of commissions that have been really fun. I did a few book cover recreations for Random House, Penguin, and Double Day. For those commissions, they asked several artists to recreate the cover art in their chosen medium as part of a cover reveal. Working on those projects showed me there's an aspect of my personality that really likes to work within set parameters, but having complete freedom within those parameters. So I love a bit of boundary, but then I also love having the freedom to go a bit crazy. It keeps me a little bit more focused, I guess.
Those pieces are some of the pieces I'm most proud of because they were very detailed and they needed to look like the cover. So, I didn't have flexibility there. With embroidery, it can be challenging to get enough detail into the work. That’s actually where I started incorporating beading into the work–I wanted the twinkle in the eye or something to bring an aspect of the cover to life and make it a little bit more three dimensional and detailed.
I did my first big pom pom commission last Fall and again it started with a set of boundaries–in this case a set palette of colors. But I had the freedom to do whatever else I wanted to do.
It's also freeing in a way to know a piece is already spoken for. I can go all in and not have any of the self-doubt that sometimes happens, wondering if someone will like a piece enough to buy it. When a client trusts my vision and instinct, it allows me to work in a way where I don’t feel like I’m compromising anything.
How much of your artistic process is planned and how much is driven by intuition?
I usually have some sort of a loose plan when I start a new piece and it always turns out that the finished piece is almost nothing like what I had originally started off with! As I’ve grown and become more confident in my work, I’ve learned to leave room for playfulness–to pivot and integrate something completely unexpected.
What is the most surprising thing you’ve learned from being an artist?
One of the happiest surprises is the strong, supportive online community among artists. Sometimes I question myself and wonder if something is too wild or too crazy, but when I put myself out there and an artist I respect shows kindness and support, it’s truly amazing. I feel like I've created some genuine friendships with people that I've literally never met who I respect so much.
What advice do you have for other artists?
Take the time to be playful. Playfulness is key to my process and who I am as an artist. I find it to be really, really important to keep my art-making process interesting and whimsical. It’s definitely important to go deep enough into a technique to become good at it, I also find myself drawn to learning new things and adding experiments to my work. I think that sense of play is one of the most crucial parts of my work. It's important for me to see evolution in my work.
If you are inspired to explore Évora, Portugal and learn with Jen Ann Handmade, here is your chance.
Join us by clicking below.
