About Jennifer
Jennifer Ewing is a lifelong artist who values transformation, connection, mindfulness and joy. She moves the viewer/ participant into an extraordinary place within themselves by engaging with my art. Her philosophy carries a message of how we can find hope and safety while traversing this planet. We can all use a Spirit Boat.
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Since her father's death in 2004, she creates Spirit Boats in his honor to help others revitalize inner powers, release grief and loss and accelerate clarity of purpose. Drawing on her past roles as teacher, mentor, museum educator and business owner, she continues to provide fresh direction and inspiration for those who travel in one of her Spirit Boats, or participate in a program. Jennifer's work has been widely exhibited in the San Francisco Bay Area and hundreds of people have enjoyed her workshops.
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Jennifer's paintings offer a kind of mediation, a space to explore and go deeper into the unknown using a boat as a means to build intuition and personal stories. When she paints, she enters into another realm to feel her way through passages of color, texture, and lines that compose the work. She believes in letting the image emerge on its own terms but what comes forward is guided by decades of studio experience and experimentation in soulful voyages of self discovery. In this way, each painting is a self portrait.
Other phases of my work can be found
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Inspirations
Tales of journeys in boats from all over the world and throughout time stir my creative juices. Origin stories and indigenous beliefs give me a greater awareness of our human presence and closer connections with my own environment. These influence me deeply as I progress through a painting. I draw from the unseen world that I access to transform my art and thinking. I have a practice of journeying with a drum where I receive messages if I listen wholeheartedly. Symbols such as boats and ladders represent movement and help guide my hand. Nature guides my listening and by pausing often, I hear more of what wants to come through.
I keep my eye out for other artists who are exploring similar waters and this all adds to a larger collective that empowers the planet.
Techniques
Tales of journeys in boats from all over the world and throughout time stir my creative juices. Origin stories and indigenous beliefs give me a greater awareness of our human presence and closer connections with my own environment. These influence me deeply as I progress through a painting.
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I draw from the unseen world that I access to transform my art and thinking.
I have a practice of journeying with a drum where I receive messages if I listen wholeheartedly. Symbols such as boats and ladders represent movement and help guide my hand. Nature guides my listening and by pausing often, I hear more of what wants to come through.
I keep my eye out for other artists who are exploring similar waters and this all adds to a larger collective that empowers the planet.
2005 was a big year, I entered the world of Museum Education and became a teaching artist at the same time I began my major body of work. 2007 marked my first exhibit of my Spirit Boat paintings. My ideas kept growing and soon I began working in three dimensions, designing sculptural processes and drawing workshops. This way, I had painting, sculpture and drawing as expressions of how the Spirit Boat shows up for me.
In 2011, my solo show, Spirit Boat Directions was installed at the San Francisco deYoung Museum. Each following exhibit has expanded my theme and shown various approaches to how my boats work in the world. Other solo shows include the San Francisco Presidio, UCSF Gallery 190, Think Round Fine Arts and Ruth's Table and numerous group shows throughout the SF Bay Area.
Hundreds of people have taken my workshops and have found new direction for their lives. I have been part of several conferences and spoken at various venues about how art can serve us in fresh, enlightening and delightful ways.