Hi there, I’m Jenna.

My work is about me making personal sense of the interplay between ideals and the ceaseless chaos of entanglement. Often, I explore this tension in the context of modern motherhood, holding up beauty itself as a kind of primary truth. Much of my work incorporates visual metaphors drawn from systems science to explore social dynamics.

I like concepts and ideas. In the earlier phase of my life, I rode the wave of ideas, feeling a sense of control as I lectured on business management in the modern era and concepts of systems. Eventually, the inherent entropy of motherhood brought me to a new reality. Life suddenly lacked the clarity I cherished. It was more disordered - and also more beautiful - than ever before. This chaotic immersion marinated in the stew of my mind, blending with my repository of ideas, metaphors, and systems concepts.

Somehow, it was all true.

In 2022, I began painting moments of beauty in the midst of the entropy: My daughters playing in the snow during a summer escape from Texas heat; an unreasonably lovely stack of bowls haphazardly waiting to be filled with soup, or broken, whichever comes first; the guaranteed momentariness of life, presented as a vibrant scene passing by through a car window, only too fast to focus. Oil painting allowed these moments to stand long enough to be absorbed.

My artistic influences stem from the works of Janet Fish, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Rothko. Additionally, my fascination with systems science continues to shape my creative process, encouraging me to explore interdisciplinary connections. And then, there is something else that captures my attention. It is the feeling I get when I encounter an all-consuming problem, and then I go on a hike and come out feeling like it’s just really not that big of a deal after all. Relinquishment. Entering a forest space where there is no right or wrong, just a series of things that are simply there, slowly, growing together. This keeps me intrigued - keeps me painting in response - in an attempt to capture the truth that is there, and is here, in all of it, too.