Brickbottom Gallery – Jen Fries Arts

I’m back! Miss me? Remember me?

June 24, 2023 Jen

As my long-time subscribers know, when I run into a creative problem, I tend to retreat into my burrow and gnaw on it – and gnaw and gnaw like a determined squirrel – until it’s dealt with. Then I come back and tell you a bunch of new stuff and resume posting.

Well, I’ve just finished another round of gnawing, and I am now emerging from the burrow.

The tough nut this time was Chapter 5 of An Alchemy of Dragons, appropriately enough. In Tarot, 5 is the number of struggle, complications, and finding one’s way, all of which describes the part of the story where Protagonist 1 finally meets Protagonist 2, and the perfectionist author has to obsess over every single freaking word and comma and every possible plot permutation over and over again.

I finally cracked it. Vistas have opened before me. The plot is improved all down the line. Necessary world-building edits for continuity are identified. Research has been done and decisions made about how to handle things that will come up later.

Plus, a lot of new writing and art projects were spawned in the process. Ideas a-poppin’ all over.

While I was at it … I launched a Patreon!

Now, don’t get nervous. Yes, I’m asking for money. I’ve been asking for money. There are donation buttons all over the website. Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed them. I have an online shop at Artrepreneur with its very own link in the navigation tabs. I know you’ve been avoiding it.

All I’ve done is add another support option. Jen Fries Arts is not going to change.

So why a Patreon, then?

Because Patreon will provide a secure system for subscribers who wish to become monthly supporters, and it will, I hope, help me manage my time and work flow and offer projects that would be hard to do on the WordPress website, as it’s currently set up.

Patreon demands consistent engagement by me, the creator, which should address that whole burrow-retreat problem. No more only hearing from me after you’ve started thinking I must have died. With Patreon, I’ll be getting paid to produce work on a real schedule, so I’d better do it.

Also, Patreon provides tools and a platform for things I really want to do in future, such as invitational social events, interactive online projects, discussion groups, and so forth.

Supporting my studio is completely optional, but it is deeply appreciated.

I will always strive to make my money by selling my creative works, but we all know how the world is today. Sales lag desperately behind basic living costs. A creator can easily go utterly broke before their career can catch up with their rent. If I want to keep doing what I’m good at, I need to monetize it.

I refuse to put ads on my site and turn Jen Fries Arts into just another corporate marketing page. The only alternative is to encourage people who like what I do to pay for it, whether by purchasing the finished works or by patronage.

In an upcoming post, I’ll explain the details of the options I’ve set up. Please watch for that. It will be added to the About section, as well.

Click here to check out my Patreon now: Jen’s Patreon.

More upcoming posts will include a statement regarding generative AI because all the cool kids are doing it, and my big-picture plans for the Alchemy project, which is getting pretty ambitious.

In additional studio news, I have a new artwork on display in the summer show at the Brickbottom Gallery in scenic Somerville, MA. The exhibition is called “Carnival,” and it is running now through July 29th. Click here for gallery details. I will post notes about the new piece soon. The snakes are part of it.

So that’s the update. I’m back, sleeves rolled up, getting down to business, and I’m really glad to see you all again.

Happy Summer!

– Jen

Getting a Little Perspective

July 14, 2022 Jen

So hi. How’s it going? It’s been a challenging few weeks, hasn’t it? Yes, it has. It freaking damn well has been challenging. And I’m sure those whose idea of fun is to make life harder than it needs to be have plenty more challenges in store for all of us.

But you know what? The hell with them.

Because you know what else happened since my last post? NASA started receiving the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and it’s spectacular! Here is NPR’s report about it.

Our universe is bigger, fuller, and more sparkly than I, for one, dared to hope.

To quote Jane Rigby, operations project scientists for the JWST, “Everywhere we look, there’s galaxies everywhere.”

It’s so wonderful, and honestly, by comparison, I’m just done with all the petty, trivial, back-biting toxicity that some people on our little planet want to waste everyone’s time with.

Look around you. There are galaxies everywhere! And flowers, and bees, and rainbows, and rabbits. The other day, I baked a cake with raspberries from my own garden. Here’s the recipe, courtesy of King Arthur Flour (an employee-owned company; no affiliation): Late Summer Berry Torte. It’s super easy, and you can make it with just about any fruit.

This is what matters in life.

So here’s what we’re not going to do: We’re not going to waste any more time with crap that doesn’t matter. We’re not going to let the bastards take away our rights, ruin our environment, get us sick again, or otherwise make our lives revolve around them, because they are tiny, stupid, pointless, and they don’t matter.

Here’s what we are going to do instead: We’re going to make art and look at art. Read stories and write stories. Eat yummy things. We’re going to keep everybody’s rights – period. We’re going to keep transitioning to clean energy and saving Planet Earth – period. We’re going to pay attention to the countless galaxies and stars sparking like jewels out there in the forever and ever.

And we’re going to know that this is the reality we all live in together, not some bleak, zero-sum, dead-end bullshit a certain bunch of raging randos dreamed up for themselves.

In the Reality Universe, we live in light, color, sparkles, and bunnies, and we have cake, so we win.

Sound like a plan? Good. Let’s get on it.

Updates from the Studio:

Summer Exhibition: “From Dark to Light,” July 14 – August 20, at the Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville. Visit their website for details and directions. I will be showing one of my Blue Lake paintings.

Poetry: Four new poems are up for reading. Click the Books & Writing tab to check them out. They were all written one sunny day when I was trying to work on my porch but got distracted by the perfection of the afternoon.

Web Novel: An Alchemy of Dragons, Chapter 1, is coming next week, around July 20, hopefully. Here’s a rough hint about the in-progress illustrations, from my sketchbook:

And Sings the Tune: New Art, New Cat

July 12, 2021 Jen

I can hardly believe it has been about three months since my last update, but as most of you know, I tend to fall off the planet fairly regularly. I don’t apologize for it. When I have crap to work through that’s irrelevant to anyone else, I just do it without showing it to anyone. But finally, I do have news to share.

New work on exhibit this summer

“Sometimes the neighbors are up all night,” collage and acrylic on paper.

JFries sometimes the neighbors 6.30.2021 — And sings the tune without the words…

This new work is inspired by our local wild birds, whose songs frequently echo through the streets at night, when all else is relatively quiet. I find the birds’ nightlife deeply reassuring. Even in something as small as a bird singing in the dark, we are reminded that we share a living and lively world. The collage is 7 x 10 inches, and made with copies of vintage images, bars of music randomly sliced from Stravinsky’s “The Firebird Suite,” my own blue landscape in acrylic paste, and a line from Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the Thing With Feathers.”

It’s part of the summer show at the Brickbottom Gallery, “The Great Outdoors,” running July 15 – August 14, 2021. Visit the Brickbottom website at This Link for details.

A Cat

Allow me to introduce Luna Lynx, Lady Silvertip, our new cat and studio assistant.

lunalynx 6.2021 — “I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.” – Jean Cocteau

She has been with us about a month and is still in studio orientation, but has taken the job of House Cat well in hand. According to the good folks at Animal Rescue League of Boston, although very young herself, she had just weaned off a litter of kittens before coming to us. I believe she has transferred her maternal instincts to her two new humans. Luna Lynx is extremely attentive, playful and nurturing. She scolds us if we wander off, makes sure we eat on time and get our exercise, and checks on us in our beds at night.

I’m grateful because we have needed someone to take care of us these past few sad months. With her to get us up and running, I feel like we can finally start to move again and that the winter – and all of last year, really – is over at last.

Finally, watch this space for upcoming projects and a new online shop system, coming soon.

Coming up for air

August 6, 2020 Jen

Surprisingly busy this summer, despite the distancing and closing. I hope you have been having a good summer, too, and enjoying the weather or at least beating the heat.

To catch you up:

Estuary Moon is viewable at the Brickbottom Gallery online, along with works by many other wonderful artists. You can find that exhibition here, through August 15.

I’ve been experimenting with new-to-me techniques, resulting in a new collection of small monochrome landscapes, acrylic on paper. You can find those under Artworks, here.

I’ve also been rebinding an old book from my library – a 1970’s hard cover edition of Arthur E. Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot, a gift from my friends back in high school. It’s a low-budget, no-frills book, but it has sentimental value, so when the binding finally started to give up the ghost, I decided to rehabilitate it with my favorite non-adhesive book style, the Japanese tetsuyoso binding. It’s quite the job, as the 40-year-old glue did not want to come off, despite dropping pages. I had to do more cutting and reconstructing than I’d hoped, and I added some muslin to reinforce the spine, but it’s going well. The refurbished cover, dressed in one of my paste papers, is drying under weight as I write this.

Pictorial Key to the Tarot in progress

More reconstructed botanicals are coming up. White pine and goldenrod are in progress.

And I did a bit of housekeeping on the website – cleaned up the images, consolidated the books under one heading. The Artworks pages look cleaner and prettier now.

Outside the studio, it’s been pretty much gardening and birding round the clock. Well…I’m not going to any shopping malls, that’s for sure. The community garden is at war with our local city rabbits, but while others engage in brute force with brooms and hoses, I have entered into a psychological battle with one particular adorable fluff-nugget who has a fondness for bean tendrils. Yeah, okay, Peter Cottontail, but I notice he doesn’t touch the aromatic herbs, tomatoes, or turnip greens, so guess what this garden will look like next year? Buckle-up, Buttercup. It is brought.

We’ve also had a fun summer visitor to the mulberry tree outside our kitchen window. Camera-shy little thing – this is the best shot I’ve gotten of him – but from the color, the wing markings, and a brief glimpse of his beak shape, I believe this is a Baltimore oriole. The first I’ve seen in scenic Somerville. Judge for yourself, comparing my blurry photo to the entry in AllAboutBirds.org.

JFries oriole 8.2020 — Sneaky glimpse through the bushes. It’s totally an oriole.

It’s not easy to write upbeat blog posts these days, what with all that’s going on. I’m not even going to say “in the world.” Let’s just call it – things are not swell in the USA, and yes, there are people to blame for that. I spend about as much time as most people worrying and growling over it. There is a lot of uncooperative BS being bandied about that I am completely over and done with, together with the people spouting it, and the horses they rode in on. Done. I’m just done. It makes staying home easier, at any rate.

But after all, my sainted mother and I and our immediate neighbors are all healthy, and there’s a Baltimore oriole outside my kitchen window. What have I got to complain about? (Okay, plenty, but you know what I mean.)

So take care. Be well. Wear your masks. And look out your windows. There’s probably something pretty and amazing out there that will lift you up and keep you going.

A walk in my garden

Virtual Gallery: Construction/Deconstruction is online

May 23, 2020 Jen

The Brickbottom Artists Association exhibition, “Construction/Deconstruction,” is now up in full online. Please enjoy!

The Brickbottom Gallery here in Somerville was forced to close to the public due to the pandemic, but my fellow artists did a fantastic job establishing our first virtual gallery. Our annual spring show is extended into the summer.

Click here to view the full exhibition at www.Brickbottom.org.

My contribution, “Pink Yarrow,” reconstructs flowers from my urban garden from the dried remains of the actual plants.

Keep Calm and Carry On

April 13, 2020 Jen

The exhibition “Construction/Deconstruction” at the Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville is moving ahead, and so am I. With the kind help of some fellow artists with a car, my new piece, “Pink Yarrow,” made it to the gallery with proper physical distancing observed at all times.

The show will be presented online, so watch this site for further updates.

A new project starts tomorrow. For now, please enjoy a sneak peak at “Pink Yarrow,” part of the Botanicals series, made with actual pink yarrows from last year’s garden, restored to their summer colors.

Mystic Birds, a New Exhibition, Green Life

April 13, 2019January 14, 2020 Jen

Work abounds, and thus I’m late again. This past week, I launched at last a project in planning all last year. Mystic Birds 1, 2, and 3 celebrate some of my favorite waterbirds – Herring Gulls, Common Terns, Canada Geese, and Mallard Ducks – against the backdrop of the Mystic River estuary and Boston’s Tobin Bridge. I used some of my own photos of the birds and bridge, taken over the last year at the Schrafft’s Center in Charlestown. You can go there any time and see these scenes just as I did.

If you happen to be in Somerville this spring, you can also see these collages at the Brickbottom Gallery, in the Brickbottom Artists Association annual Spring show “Green,” running April 18 – May 18. You can come and meet me at the reception, April 29, 5 – 7 pm, and be sure to visit all the artists during Somerville Open Studios, May 4 – 5. Details at the BAA’s website.

These Mystic Birds are the first of a series of works exploring the life of the Mystic River watershed from Boston Harbor up to the Mystic Lakes. Once one of the most polluted water systems in the US, the Mystic is now one of the most improved, getting stronger every year, but still threatened by development, industry, and climate change. Learn more about it from the Mystic River Watershed Association. It is wonderful to spend time by the river, see the wildlife carrying on their business, and realize that the human world and natural world are not at all separate, but one and the same. Our own neighborhoods are environments worth saving, something I remember as I write this and listen to sparrows outside my window and a woodpecker working on a tree somewhere nearby. I hope with my new Mystic River Project to raise awareness of the vibrant nature around us all the time, and to encourage people to live in nature wherever they are, even in the middle of big cities.

So this year look for more of my love letters to this urban river. Also more walks around the rest of my city, commissioned toys and objects, artist books and self-publishing, and blog posts about greening up my studio and art practice. Spring is the time for cleaning up and getting started.

I hope to see you at the Brickbottom “Green” reception!

JFries MysticBirds1 Herring Gulls 4.2.19

While I was at it … I launched a Patreon!

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Updates from the Studio:

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New work on exhibit this summer

A Cat

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