Jennie Thwing is an artist, animator and educator.
She received her BFA from Tyler School of Art and her MFA from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She teaches animation at Alfred State College in New York. She has had solo exhibitions at Grizzly Grizzly, Local Project, Chashama Space to Present, the Arlington Arts Center, the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, The Mainline Art Center, Soho 20 Gallery, School 33, Fleisher Art Memorial Dene M. Locheim Gallery, Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, Studio 34 and 20.20. She has curated numerous multidisciplinary exhibitions and attended residencies in the US, Norway, New Zealand, and Canada. She has received numerous awards including the 2014 Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art; an Environmental Art Project Grant at the Schuylkill Center; a 2013 - 15’ Center for Emerging Artists Fellowship; a 2014 SPARC Artist in Residence grant; and a 2014 & 2019 Queens Arts Fund Grant.
Artist / Work Statement
My goal as an artist is to expand on the human experience through the creation of art. Using animation, interaction, and installation I create visceral artworks that pull from world events, politics, memory, personal ideology, social causes, family mythologies, and environmental decay. My work is driven by sound. Sound helps me to visualize emotion and memory. I often interweave narrative into my work, using my own experiences as well as stories collected from the public. All of my work revolves around the natural world and involves the anthropomorphism of nature, refuse, and human environments.
I have worked in the medium of animation and installation for over 15 years. I used to rely on residencies and periods of inspiration to produce art. After the birth of my son, I was forced to change my process. I could no longer work continuously for weeks at a time. Instead, I started creating daily 3-10 second animations. This led to a series of installations that include cut-felt animations, and wall sculptures. The sculptures mirror the visuals, materials, and themes in the animations. I recently started experimenting with audience interaction to imitate shared experiences. The works serve as a love letter to my son, a record of my pre-child memories and post-Covid fears.
I create the animations using a mix of cell animation and cut-out materials. The sculptures are made from felt or cut paper. I cut the installations by hand. I use a cricket vinyl cutter to cut the more intricate paper cut-outs. Most of the work is hand cut, sewn or adhered. In some of these works, I include interactive sound and animations that are triggered by audience movement. Each of these works is reliant on sound.
