The Million-Petaled Flower of Being Here | Jennifer Davies
The Million-Petaled Flower of Being Here | Jennifer Davies
Jennifer Davies in her Erector Square studio. Photo: J. Gleisner.
Jennifer Davies lifts a large sheet of handmade paper into the air. It floats for a moment in front of the window, as the late afternoon sunlight passes through the transparent network of off-white Kozo fibers. Inside her third-floor studio at Erector Square, Davies’s delicate fiber works fill a wall of flat files and they rest between oversized sheets of glassine on tables. On one wall, she has pinned several recent experiments from a papermaking workshop led by Hartford-based artist Hong Hong. For many decades, her work has been rooted in fiber, weaving it into sculptural wall hangings, sewing layers of it together, or pressing its pulp onto the bark of trees to replicate its crusty texture.
Davies remembers visiting a painter’s studio when she was very young: The pungent smell of turpentine filled the room and oil paintings cluttered the floor. “There was this feeling of recognizing something that was also on the inside,” recalled Davies, who had never met a professional artist before that afternoon. Being immersed in this studio, Davies felt an attraction to the lifestyle and career of an artist.
Jennifer Davies, Leaf Poem 1, 50 in. (h) x 28 in. (w); monotype and handmade paper. Image courtesy of the artist.
During middle school, Davies spent Saturdays at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, where her family had relocated when she was six years old. Children packed into the symphony hall and were given paper and other cheap art materials. Supervision was minimal and after the class, Davies often roamed the museum by herself, perusing Matisse paintings from the permanent collection and taking in the temporary exhibitions. At the end of the day, she would call a cab for herself to return home.
Around this time, Davies’s parents arranged for her to take lessons from a neighbor who was an artist. Marie Kelly accepted Davies as her student and into her circle of friends. Throughout high school, Davies attended Kelly’s parties, making pysanky eggs with artists and listening to their discussions about art. Later, Kelly coached Davies as she applied to art school and was delighted when Davies got into the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.
At RISD, Davies majored in illustration because she loved to draw. During her senior year, she studied in Rome, as part of the European Honors Program. Davies received a weekly stipend; however, there were no classes. Instead, she filled her days sketching the sights around Rome and Arezzo, where she was staying with an Italian family. On another continent, the Vietnam War had begun. News from America was not readily accessible abroad, but Davies would soon experience the tumult of this era on American soil: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated within a year of her return.
Jennifer Davies, Keeping Track, 63 in. (h) x 82 in. (w). Printing ink on handmade paper. Image courtesy of the artist.
Back in the states, Davies married her college boyfriend, the older brother of a classmate at RISD. Within a few years, they moved to Connecticut and then in 1974, she gave birth to identical twin boys. To help with the demands of childcare and household chores, Davies had hired a babysitter who urged her to find time for herself. While the babysitter watched her boys, Davies snuck out of the house to make watercolor paintings around her Prospect Hill neighborhood. She began using a spare bedroom as a makeshift studio and started taking classes at the Creative Arts Workshop.
During the 1980s, Davies saw an exhibition devoted to paper at the Creative Arts Workshop. The show demonstrated that paper was as an art form in its own right. “Giant sheets of paper were hanging over the balcony and there were these exquisite vacuum-formed paper pieces that were really dense,” said Davies. “It showed me that you can make a painting in the widest meaning—without doing it on canvas or having hundreds of years of history sitting on your head while you’re working.”
Jennifer Davies, Dancers, 11 in. (h) x 14 in. (w). Charcoal on dendril. Image courtesy of the artist.
Soon, Davies signed up for a papermaking course at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Kingston, New York. When the course didn’t fill, Davies asked if she could still have access to the studio. That week, she ended up sharing the space with an instructor who taught papermaking, who had also tried to take the class. She learned basic papermaking techniques and from that point forward, Davies immersed herself in the fiber arts, learning indigo dyeing, advanced papermaking techniques, and pulp painting over the years.
Jennifer Davies, Dubai Commission (5), 36 in. (diameter). String, paper pulp, and pigment. Image courtesy of the artist.
Now in her early 70s, Davies sees two distinct periods within her artistic career. “The early part of my professional life was all about paying close attention to life and drawing it—the landscape and the figure, for example—and during the second half, I have been drawing from those images and experiences to develop my work as a fiber artist,” she said. Always a diligent student, Davies expands her knowledge of contemporary art on weekend trips to New York City with her new husband. Both staying current with the contemporary art world and nurturing relationships with her colleagues have been of equal importance to her longevity as an artist.
All of Davies’s quotes are from a conversation with the author at Davies’s studio in the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut on August 30, 2019.
Read more about this commissioned project here.
