Jenny Brown, "Infinite Starlit Lily Reef"
pen & collage on paper, 8.5" x 11," 2016
Based in Providence, Rhode Island, Jenny Brown's artwork is truly unique. Elements of drawing, pen & ink, collage of found paper, and an imagination unlike any other combine to bring a mythical world of sea and forest creatures to life. Her recent collage works are dream-like, focusing on "a harmony amongst different elements of the natural world, from flora, to fauna, to the celestial, to the oceanic." Each individual piece is a unique organism, one of a seemingly infinite number of teeming and multitudinous forms of life drifting through the sea, or nestled into a quiet nook deep in the forest. The use of paper ephemera gives each piece a feeling of having been pulled from a vintage oceanographic almanac, or from the flat files of a natural history museum. We see that each is composed of multiple aspects: flowers, shells, jellyfish, tentacles, wisps, tendrils, feelers, pollen suspended about, but the collage of all these recognizable elements creates something new, something never seen before. Whether flora or fauna, we know these beings have life, a unique quality fashioned by a keen eye and delicate sensibility.
"An abundance of florals in the work represent the hearts and souls of these fantastic creatures...branches and tentacles represent their yearning to be connected...corals and sea plants reconnect these creatures to the most basic elements of life which created them...water and mineral."
Jenny Brown, "Homesick for the Starfish,"
"Homesick for the Cobweb Jellyfish," "Homesick for the Mirabelle Jellyfish,"
pen & collage on antique photo, 4" x 6.5", 2016
Jenny studied art at Bennington College and received her MFA from School of Visual Arts. She recently showed her work with the Anonymous Drawings collective in Berlin, Germany & Rome, Italy. She has also been featured on blogs such as Boooooom, Anthology Magazine, and The Jealous Curator. She was a featured artist in the October 2015 international issue of Fresh Paint Magazine."