2021
20” x 20”
Acrylic, flashe, and embroidery.

Voluntary

2020
16” x 20”. 
Acrylic, gouache, fabric, pastel and marker on canvas.

The “Back to Mother” series was initiated as a response to the poem, "Locked Out of Life," by Rumi. The vaguely adult yet embryonic figures here are pulled through gelatinous, cytoplasmic, amniotic, vast, glowing spaces and are suspended in this semi-liquid consistency that is both supportive and freeing. This is a play on similar use of symbolism in early Christian art, where a bird is shown very loosely connected by a thin string to the hand it is perched on, evoking the sense of the bird being free while also belonging to something that contributes to its identity. The figures are presumed to be on a journey—on the move to an unknown, yet supremely familiar place. 

Familiarity and intimacy are recurring themes in the series. The grime and awkwardness of the natural world are balanced here with the type of ennobling that is at times only possible within parent-offspring relationships. The figures’ giant sleeping faces only reinforce their blameless, oblivious, and absolute innocence.


“Back to Mother” Series (#1, 2, 5)

2020
41” x 41”
Acrylic, flashe paint, fabric applique and embroidery. 


A 35-Million-Year Moment

2020. 15” x 10”, Gouache, acrylic, and ink on paper.

Produced during the global COVID-19 quarantine, "Handful" is a quiet memoir of a relationship in isolation.

Handful

Acrylic and ink on canvas. 35 cm x 35 cm.
2020

“Hands-On” is a contextless netting of hands, exerting a spectrum of contact—comforting, concerning, awaiting affectionately, nostalgically taking. It’s a memorial of touch best explained by Sylvia Plath line, “Vague as fog and looked for like mail.” This was the first piece Jenn created during the COVID-19 pandemic. A true sense of timeline dissolves once you're in the house for weeks, and her work shifted from being narrative into "emotional snapshots,” that all circle around an overwhelming sense of desire for something that's forever obscured, as she wonders what it is that we really want from one another and from ourselves. 

"Hands-On"

Goauche, acrylic & ink on paper. 10" x 15"
2020

“My Mind's Such A Sweet Thing, Wanna Do Every-Thing, What A Wonderful Feeling” is an examination of the paralyzing power that the need for measured productivity gains while in isolation over the innocence that's naturally embedded in aspiration. A true sense of timeline dissolves once you're in the house for weeks, which caused her work to shift during the COVID-19 quarantine from being narrative into "emotional snapshots,” that all circle around an overwhelming sense of desire for something that's forever obscured, as she wonders what it is that we really want from one another and from ourselves.

"My Mind's Such a Sweet Thing, Wanna Do Every-Thing, What a Wonderful Feeling"

2020
18” x 24”. 
Graphite, pastel and marker on bond layout paper.

The “Back to Mother” series was initiated as a response to the poem, "Locked Out of Life," by Rumi. The vaguely adult yet embryonic figures here are pulled through gelatinous, cytoplasmic, amniotic, vast, glowing spaces and are suspended in this semi-liquid consistency that is both supportive and freeing. This is a play on similar use of symbolism in early Christian art, where a bird is shown very loosely connected by a thin string to the hand it is perched on, evoking the sense of the bird being free while also belonging to something that contributes to its identity. The figures are presumed to be on a journey—on the move to an unknown, yet supremely familiar place. 

Familiarity and intimacy are recurring themes in the series. The grime and awkwardness of the natural world are balanced here with the type of ennobling that is at times only possible within parent-offspring relationships. The figures’ giant sleeping faces only reinforce their blameless, oblivious, and absolute innocence.


“Back to Mother” Series (#6, 7)

Mixed paper weaving, marker, acrylic and pastel on paper. 40" x 64"

This double portrait includes two interview participants from "Barabbas's Garden" audio tapestry installation that have never met but were paired based on the content of their interviews. The woman in the foreground is a tapestry artist, and the male is a philosophy student. The composition and title was inspired by some mother-son relationships. The mother is a type of creator, but at a certain point in her son's life must come to accept who/what her child has become, whether or not it was her doing. 
The rarely-used process of Wood Lithography (or Mokulito) was the method of choice for these prints due to the highly variable prints it produces which struggle to hold their images clearly against the wood grain that appears from the printing plate. During the post-print drawing process, Jenn reacts to the different visual dynamics that occurred in each print and uses these variations to explore the numerous "personalities" expressed in each portrait. This is one way of acknowledging the limitations in what could be known about these interviewees from the hours she spent with each of them.

Is He What You Wanted Him To Be?

These two pieces were part of the collection of wood lithograph portrait prints that were made of the "Barabbas's Garden" interview participants, using the sketches made during their interview sessions. Content from the interviews informed the pairing of specific participants into some double portraits as in these two pieces, sometimes combining those who have never met before.
The composition is based on Egon Schiele's "Double Self Portrait" from 1915, where two sides of himself are fused into one mass - half sheltering, half taking shelter. The flowers in my image are here referred to as a "bouquet" since they are not only flowers, but flowers that are filled with intention and given to (for) another. The flowers change places between the characters in each of these paired images, as a symbol of the affection within a relationship that is mobile and changes position constantly, but remains within the overall structure. (Additional comment: dimensions above are the same for each of the two pieces)


Bouquet I & II

The Gumbo Limbo tree sheds its flaky bark in order to prevent colonization by parasitic insects. The Cecropia tree is the "pioneer species", venturing into eroded or burned lands to provide shade and restore the soil and initiate regrowth. Similarly, humans take up certain roles dependent on social and environmental movements in their generations. This installation questions how growth occurs while a person is affected by environments, decisions, circumstances, and the intersection between self and others. The installation itself is intended to "grow" and change each time it is exhibited, as a person changes when living in front of a compounding history.

Using botanical metaphors, the tapestry takes the form of an embroidered forest image to create an organic, anthropomorphic character which seeks to understand how it’s been formed. The audio projected from behind the tapestry includes fragments of the artist's voicemail recordings from the past decade and portions of individual interviews the artist conducted with open call participants and close friends. 

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Jenn Cacciola