Jacqui Lewnes

Artist Statement

I have loved animals since babyhood.  One of the earliest pictures of me is at age two, screaming happily at a turtle.  My mom used to refer to our dogs, Tinker and Gypsy, as my sisters and I treated them as such.  I understand animals far better than people sometimes--they are more perfect beings to me.  Animals give unconditional love and humor, with no head games, and I appreciate all their small bits of wisdom.

In my twenties I had a dog friend named Lady, who was old when we met, and when she died I was surprised at how I grieved the loss.  She started to show up in my art and I was soon depicting more and more dogs, and cats as well.  Of Land and Sea gives me a chance to expand beyond cats and dogs to a wider array of animals, whether found in the wild, in the backyard, in a tank or on a plate.

Monotype printmaking allows me to be intriguingly expressive.  I am able to work quickly, painterly and abstractly, while the fluidity of the medium gives an active look to my animal imagery.  My work begins with a gestural drawing based on an individual animal subject.  I then develop the monotype by working subtractively, covering the plate with a layer of ink and then removing it in selected areas.  I typically use three colors to create an image, printed in three separate passes on the press.  Positive and negative spaces are created in the first two passes, while the third uses shadow to ground the animal in the composition.  In a final pass, the complete animal emerges as I work additively to apply the "key", a thick black outline of the image.   

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Biography

Place of Birth:  Annapolis, Maryland

Date of Birth:  1966

Education:  Maryland Insitute, College of Fine Arts, Cum Laude Bachelor of Fine Art, Baltimore, MD 1995

Anne Arundel Community College, Sererna Park, MD 1992

Solo Exhibitions:

2008: Of Land and Sea, New Grounds Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico

2006: Raining Cats and Dogs, New Grounds Gallery

           Uptown Satellite Cafe, Albuquerque, NM

1996: Emma’s Silver-Tone Cafe, Albququerque, NM

1994: Paul’s Homewood Cafe, Annapolis, MD

Group Exhibitions:

2005: Maryland Institute College of Art, 15 x 15 Alumni Exhibition

         ART Santa Fe

1995: Cocoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1995: Maryland Insitute, College of Fine Art, Baltimore, MD

1992: Maryland Federation of Art, Annapolis, Maryland

Major collections: 

Albuquerque Museum

Museo de la Estampa, Mexico City

Western University, Silver City, NM

UNM Law School, Albuquerque, NM

UNM Hospital, Albuquerque, NM

Loyola College, Baltimore, MD

Roland Park Country School, Baltimore, MD

University of Texas at Austin

Richland College, Dallas, TX

University of North Carolina at Fayetteville