Effingham Public Library is pleased to welcome local artist, Jennifer DeWeese
Jennifer was born and raised in Effingham, IL. She has been interested in art since she was a child, and while she has pursued and enjoyed many art forms, illustrations and drawings are the favorites she always goes back to. She has decades of drawing experience. “Drawing is usually the first kind of art any artist picks up, whether it’s a pencil or a crayon. The medium I use might change (I’m fond of both ink and graphite, and I switch between the two often), but overall drawing has been the art form I’ve stuck with the longest. I chose graphite for this set of drawings because I really enjoy building up the subtle values, and honestly who doesn’t love spending hours making 10,000 cross-hatches on a single drawing?”
Her biggest inspiration comes from anything the natural world has to offer. “I love patterns and textures and trying to replicate them is a fun way to explore and hone my skills. For this group of drawings in particular, I’ve been inspired by the season! Fall is one of my favorite times of year, especially Halloween and all the spookiness it has to offer. I decided to explore that as a general theme and see if I couldn’t put my own little spin on things.”
“Whether you realize it or not, art has touched every aspect of our lives in some way. Before we learn to write, we draw. Before humans created alphabets, we had cave-paintings that recorded our histories. The clothes we wear started as a fashion sketch on a designer’s desk and the cars we drive were once doodles in a school child’s notebook. Sometimes we draw things exactly as we see them, but for many of us, we draw what we wish the world could be.”
Jennifer’s work will be showcased until Nov. 29th
