Jenny Jen 42 is a place where Jen McBrien can present new finds,thoughts and memories, as well as show her new creations. jennyjen...the name given to her new life...42 the age she became a kid again.
Boy oh Boy was Bazzart a HUGE success for me! Best holiday show yet for jennyjen history! So I'm sorry I haven't posted but the sweatshop is a mad house! Still haven;t gotten Lucy-fur to use those claws for good instead of horrid clawing....but anyway...if you missed it...I sold out of toaster covers in the first two hours...so I now have more! Working on more pillows and tea cozies too! ANd if you miss holiday heap the next day is MErry mArt!!!! and then..Im done. the shop will be reloaded with special deals.....so herer the details for Holiday HEap here.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!1 I had to post this pic of my siblings, cousins and I at our Grandparents house...way back when. In memory of sitting at the kiddie table! Thanks for all the good laughs and times!
OK...so what else can I make a cozy for..I'm going cozy crazy! But we all know if you don't drink your French Press coffee fast enough...IT'S GOING TO GET COLD!!! So here perhaps is a very cute and simple solution! These french press cozies fit the IKEA french press perfectly (you can get one for a perfect gift for only $9.99 at your nearest IKEA. These cozies are secure around your french press through the genius of elastic and two buttons. Should fit on any french press around! They will be for sale first at Bazzart, that will be this Friday night (preview party) and then all day Saturday...details here. Again, if you have to have one now before the show, cant make it to the show and can't wait for me to list it in my shop...email me!
Back this year for the Holidays...Owlie ornaments!!! I will be posting items in my shop after my three big holiday shows. I love the group shot..reminds me of the space toys in the claw game from toy story! If you wish to purchase before Dec. 5th. email me! jennyjen42@gmail.com.
Another new product for this holiday season! No change wallets. Perfect for your cash and creadit cards!! Thin and small enough to carry in your pant pockets!
Remember those days when every appliance in the kitchen had a matching cover? Grandma did...maybe even yo mamma does. So, here I go down memory lane again and created a new toaster cover design. Here's my first one. More to come and will be on sale for the holiday shows mentioned in the last post. Perhaps the kitchen aid mixer cover will be next!
Backpacks!!!!!I heard your requests and I think I found a great solution for the needed backpack. Perfect for your short trips!!! Even more perfect for your half pints to grow into! Made of heavy duty canvas, cotton straps and felt applique birdy bird scenes! They will be sold at my holiday shows that include Bazzart (at AVAM,November 26 and 27), Holiday Heap , (Dec. 4,at St. Johns Church) and at the Merry Mart(Dec. 5, At Creative Alliance).
OMG its November and I haven't posted anything in the last two months!!!!! Just a huge sign that this school year has completely taken over my life! Yeah, this really needs to get a grip on what it is that I do and am! New Principal in town and a course I haven't taught for a while, and huge class sizes are really starting to get to me! I promise I am making in my sweatshop, just don't have the time or energy to post anything about it. I will make a promise right now, to make this change in the immediate future! Especially since I just found out what a huge impact I have on the economic status of our fair city. Check out this video from Baltimore ignite...you may see a familiar group in her pics. OK...I promise to post new product pics and this holiday show schedule as it currently stands!
I went to the Hirshhorn Museum the other weekend and found myself memorized by this fantastic film by the Danish art collective based in Copenhagen and Rio de Janeiro whose members are Jakob Fenger (b. Roskilde, 1968), Rasmus Nielsen (b. Hjørring, 1969), and Bjørnstjerne Reuter Christiansen (b. Copenhagen, 1969), titled Superflex. They has staged unconventional artworks that use social intervention as a means of calling attention to such issues as democratization, environmentalism, and consumerism. I was even blessed by having an added kid laughing quite hard through the entire film. Get down there as you rush to see the end of the Ives Klein show that closes on the 16th. of September.
Tomorrow is our Professional Development Day for Baltimore County Teachers , in which all us art teachers get to get together , this one day of the year. We get the whole run down of important new information, the introduction of the newbies and then a variety of teachers present workshops that teachers sign up for in advance…And yours truly gets to present my unit : "The Art of Making Evidence...A journal problem that asks how do you prove that you exist? An experiment in brain storming and thought provoking through the exploration of contemporary Art". Using the Art 21series I've created a unit, or I like the word progressive series, for my students to learn about what is going on in art today. To find some new artist mentors that are contemporary artist. Asking Essential Questions as the catalyst to creative thought! As well as showing artist that use film, video, installation, photography and performance to make impressive statements! The more I show my students contemporary art, the more receptive they are to it. Point Blank, it is what we see when we go on our field trips and then its so amazing to see this instant click of open mindedness to the work that use to be very different before I started to teach my students abut contemporary art! Not to also mention that we are dealing with post-modern themes and content...and we are teaching and raising post modern children. Here is a little preview from one for the artist I'm highlighting for discussing the subject of romance and regret! Laurie Simmons has been one of my up most favorites for such a long time and this short segment of her work is so beautiful!
I went to see the Yves Klein show, the Void the Powers this past weekend at the Hirshhorn and had a variety of thoughts and responses to it... that went a little bit like this...1) thank god for the women's lib movement, 2) amazing, beautiful blue, 3) " I am a painter of space...let's be honest, to paint space, I must be in the position , I must be space"4) "now paint your breast" 5) if he wasn't wearing the expensive suit, I may have taken him more seriously, and 6) really Yves Klein, you were the only inventor of the fire and water fountain!
Nuf said, watch and enjoy. Love the expressions of the man watching as well as the narrator that brings back huge memories in itself.
After I taught my painting class at MICA I moved on to Baltimore County's Summer Enrichment Camp to the Drawing portfolio class that was also high school kids...in this case for more than half the class...kids going on to Carver that will be in the 9th. grade this coming school year. So we're talking 12 high school kids drawing every day from 9 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon! Could you do that? Lunch got a little longer everyday. But I have to tell you. this group was amazing too! We would do drawing from observation in the morning. GO to lunch. Watch an Art 21 segment on a contemporary Artist. Then start another drawing assignment that had more thinking..creative thought involve. Again my mission these days is to get my students to THINK! So we ended up building paper forts! What a great idea! The entire room turned into one huge installation. Jelling the group together and making some pretty good darn drawings. Here is our installation! If you go onto the Baltimore County Public School site you can catch a video about the whole school. I make a very brief showing!
I've been meaning to post these pics for some time now. I have to say this...this painting class that I taught this summer at MICA was amazing! Not only did they simply rule in the risk taking department they were the best little critique group I have ever had...well...maybe second to my AP class of 2009...What am I saying all of my classes rule! Well, here are most...some had to leave erly and I didn't get their pics.
Since my last post, I have been to NYC and back and completed my unit on "Proof of Evidence" which features a number of artists from the Art21 series. It's another attempt to get my students to think as well as my fellow art teachers to NOT BE AFRAID OF CONTEMPORARY ART!!!! I present it next Wednesday to Baltimore County High School Art teachers. And I just noticed that I have the largest group...so I better be good and know what I'm talking about! First of all, I have to say I LOVE THIS SERIES! And it keeps giving and it keeps on licking! This fall, a film on my favorite and lately, most influential artist, William Kentridge will be out.Check details here. This will be there first full feature on an artist and it will be on PBS...hopefully it will play here! October 21 at 10PM. So get your tevo's ready!
My buddy Laura and I are going back to New York this weekend for one last hurrah for the summer ends. We needed to go back to get our cocktails on the roof garden of the Met and see the Starn Twin Installation. Maybe we'll have to take a subway ride on the Q train from Brooklyn to Manhattan. I love hearing the remarks from the people riding the train!
I'm back from the beach with a new jennyjen product! Wallet clutches perfect for your cash, credit cards, business cards or even for your classic nano! Felt applique birdies...machine washable...lined with a surprise! Check them out at my shop here. This week is the last week for free shipping! Any purchase earns you a free iron on patch and note card!!
I have not stop working since I got out of school on June 18th. Its been a crazy busy summer and I have to say not a bad summer at all. Taught two amazing classes which I know i need to post some pics on the amazing art work my students produced this year. Artscape was a blast even with its horrid heat but I did get interview on channel 11 and made some new friends and got re-acquainted with old friends too! Wrote curriculum which is gonna kick some art teacher ass into the 21st. century and got me excited for my next year of teaching. Tomorrow is my last craft show till crafty bastards in October. Need a break to make some more designs, work on some art and start illustrating a children's book in the works. I've been watching the movie Beautiful Losers, which I've just discovered you can watch the entire movie on you tube...and I suggest you do, if you haven't seen it yet. Which brings me to this video I posted that was directed by Harmony Korine for wil Oldam..two of my favorites artists. Going to go for the beach for a week and actually take a vacation! Leaving right after Hamilton Fest tomorrow night. So its peace out for a bit! I'll be back in a week and then another weekend to NYC!
A new pillow for my bird party series....otis's buddies on the clothesline!....will be on sale tomorrow at Hamilton Fest. Along with Otis himself in yellow and another bird on the wire pillow in dark gray with white lines.
Been crazy sewing these past days. Need to make some money for my week at the beach. So here are pics of the bags I've been making that will be available at Hamilton Fest. I'll have new pillows too. Will post them later today after they are complete with more Fest info.
