Tag: Exhibitions

Open Studios, November 23-24

Jen

You are cordially invited to visit with me at the Brickbottom Artists Open Studios event, this weekend, November 23 and 24, 12-5 PM each day.

Yes, I’m actually coming out of my house! I’ve been doing so much work that I decided to make one of my rare public appearances to show it off and tell people all about it. I’ll be displaying medium and small works on canvas, small works on paper, journaling/note cards, and tiny micro-zines, and I’ll be happy to answer questions and engage in sociable chit-chat.

Get event info here: Brickbottom.org.

Behold! A selection of the art I’m bringing to the event.

jfries-abstract-landscape-12-4.8.24-copy
jfries-abstract-landscape-9
JFries Doll's House 2-page spread
JFries The Sins of Icarus open view
JFries Les Madeleines de Commercy
JFries lake study 4 7.2020

Meet and Greet the Artist

Technically, I’m not literally opening my studio. I’ve been a member of the Brickbottom Artists Association of Somerville since 2020, but I only live near, not in, the physical Brickbottom Artists Buildings. I’m what we call an Affiliate Member. (Though, to be honest, I’m really freaking close, just a few streets away.) So I am bringing my studio to you, thanks to a kind and generous resident who is hosting several Affiliates for this year’s event.

I’ll have pieces for exhibition and pieces for sale, and I’ll be there to say hi, chat you up, answer all your questions great and small, and generally make myself pleasant.

Start Your Holiday Shopping Early

This is a great chance to exploit my fever of experimentation, as I will be showing a wide selection of small artworks and handmade cards for mailing or journaling, all very easy to buy, carry home, and gift to loved ones or yourself.

Works on canvas are ready to hang. Art Books and micro-zines can take you on amazing journeys, as books do. Mini paintings can adorn any desk, wall, cork board, or table, easily. And journaling and note cards are the ideal chance to embrace Art as Lifestyle, with original, unique abstract paintings designed for work as journaling cards, bookmarks, or note cards.

Hand-painted abstracts for journaling, writing, or display.

Business Stuff

If you’d like to buy some of my art, please be advised I’m accepting cash only at the event.

Yes, I know, it’s terribly backward of me, but I do so few of these events that it would actually be less efficient to set up a system to process credit cards.

But I realize it’s inconvenient for many of you, so you can also buy art online, right now or any time between now and the end of the event on Sunday evening.

If there’s any art on this site you particularly like, email me, and I’ll let you know if it’s available and for what price. You can buy it online before the weekend and pick it up from me in person at the Brickbottom.

The journaling cards are $15 each, or buy three and get a fourth card free.

Be sure to ask me about any other special offers as well as ongoing or future projects on the event days.

Hope to see you there!

-Jen

I’m back! Miss me? Remember me?

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

Studio News: Exhibition: Dark Tales, Familiars and Objects of Divination

Jen

My assemblage, Augury, is included in the autumn exhibition in the Inside-Out Gallery outside the CVS at Davis Square, Somerville. See it there, because it will be seeing you. Happy Halloween!

“Dark Tales, Familiars, and Objects of Divination” is presented by Inside-Out Gallery and Somerville Arts Council and will run through November.

Augury, mixed media assemblage.

And Sings the Tune: New Art, New Cat

Jen
JFries birds border 7.2021

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.