Featuring Local Artists Year-Round in Old Town Library’s “Treehouse”
Stepping into the second floor of Old Town Library, you can surf the internet on one of our public computers, enjoy private study rooms, or walk into our beloved “Treehouse.” Overlooking an arboretum (tree garden) maintained by the City of Fort Collins, the Treehouse was recently renovated to become a space for remote workers, quiet study sessions, or to enjoy local art in our new exhibit.
The exhibit features local artists, displaying the incredible creativity of the Fort Collins community.
Our most recent artist is Jenna Allen (left), the Communications Director for CSU Morgan Library. Below, you can learn about Jenna’s artistic process and her beautiful paintings.
Artist Statement
Colorado to Wisconsin is a group of paintings that capture my memories of nature in Colorado and Wisconsin.
I painted without planning or conscious thoughts about what statements they might make. I only focused on the experiences of observing, meditating, and painting. But when I put them together in a group like this, they do speak to each other.
They’re talking about the distance between humans’ and animals’ experiences of life. They’re exploring the slipperiness of sensory memories. They’re debating whether we can close the gap between humans and nature through our senses. And they have so many questions.
Does painting the fur on a rabbit resting in a wood pile bring us any closer to the rabbit’s perception of the splintery wood beneath its soft paws? Does noticing a deer in a lake bring us any closer to the force generated by the deer’s bones, muscles, and sinews as it swims toward shore? Does meditating on the form and colors and textures of acorns bring us any closer to an acorn’s experience of being in the world?
I invite you to join the conversation and spend time talking to the paintings and people around you, asking your own questions about humans, nature, and sensory experiences.
- How would you describe yourself as an artist?
A nature artist with an interest in details and a penchant for animals in hiding.
- When and why did you first start creating art?
I started creating art as soon as I could hold a crayon. We all create art as children–it’s a natural expression of our minds and desire to communicate. Lynda Barry, in her books about creativity–What It Is, Syllabus: Notes From an Accidental Professor, and Making Comics–asks the question, “How old do you have to be to make a bad drawing?” I think about this question a lot. She points out that it’s only when we get older that we get self-conscious and start to judge how well we draw and how our ability stacks up against others. That judgment and comparison suffocates our creativity.
I heard a lot of praise when I was young about how I was a talented artist. But that was strange to me. It often feels to me that people believe “artists” are special in some way, different, or unique. Art isn’t a static talent–it’s a dynamic way of relating yourself to the world around you. Art is a way of seeing, expressing, and communicating. It’s a habit of mind that we can all practice and cultivate.
- What themes do you enjoy exploring through art?
More often than not, my art revolves around themes related to humans, animals, and landscapes. Art helps me think about things like, “What is my place in the landscape around me?” “How do animals experience their existence?” “What brings me closer to nature and what pushes me farther away?”
Reading The Animal Side by Jean-Christophe Bailly was a really pivotal moment in the evolution of my relationship with nature over my lifetime. The Animal Side is a poetic and philosophical manifesto that shows how animals help expand human consciousness. I think it’s what set me down this artistic path. I was always drawn to natural imagery, but Bailly gave me the words and thoughts to explore these themes in a more nuanced way.
- Describe your artistic process.
Most of my paintings begin as photos I take on my phone or with my digital camera. To use a photo as a reference, I print out a copy and tape it near the canvas, or just refer to it on my phone. The photographs capture a moment in time and painting is a way for me to try to extend that moment and relive it as I paint. Lately, I’ve started to wonder if I’m extending that moment in time or if I’m creating entirely new memories, because art is an act of interpretation rather than documentation. I’ve been experimenting with more time-restricted, plein air painting so that I’m more directly connected to what I’m painting.
Reference photos are important to my work because they help me see what is there and not what I think is there. Our brains try to make generalizations about what we see–lines, shapes, colors, textures. So I try to spend time in deep observation to understand what I’m actually looking at rather than what I think I’m looking at.
My process can vary depending on my mood, the subject matter, and the weather. If I’m painting with oils, I’ll set up in my backyard for ventilation. If I’m painting with acrylics, usually I’m inside for that. I often prefer to listen to music or the TV when I paint. Old movies I’ve seen a hundred times are the best.
I usually start with an underpainting in raw umber or burnt sienna to understand the composition and set the stage for layering color. I spend the first 20 to 30 minutes cleaning my palette and mixing colors before I actually pick up a brush. I’ve learned that the better I prepare for painting, the smoother everything goes. Once I start painting, the emotional roller coaster begins; excitement, hope, doubt, confusion, despair, faith, disappointment, resolve, and finally, resignation.
- Who are the three artists who have inspired your work the most?
I’m sure the artists have changed over the years. There are many, many artists whose work I admire and appreciate, so I think it’s difficult to point to the ones that were the most inspirational. But in the last five years or so, I would probably say these three:
Bokuyo Katayama was a 20th-century Japanese painter who incorporated Western aesthetics into Japanese traditional painting methods. His best-known painting is “The Forest,” and it is probably the most perfect painting ever painted.
George Outhwaite is a contemporary British digital painter who does these gloriously detailed English landscapes. He has a fantastic meticulousness that he infuses into leaves, grasses, skies. My favorite of his works is the ones that are moody, misty, and wintery.
John James Audubon was a 19th-century naturalist and illustrator whose book Birds of America contain the most iconic, beautiful drawings of birds in America. They’re so full of energy and elegance, you can feel how much he loved birds. (The jer falcon, raven, and the flamingo are the best ones.)
- What are you reading or watching right now?
I’ve been watching a lot of veterinary shows on TV. Right now, it’s The Yorkshire Vet, which is about veterinarians in England caring for farm animals and pets. There are so many cute baby animals! But there are also a lot of surgeries, so it’s maybe not for the faint of heart. But I do find veterinary shows somehow weirdly soothing. For me, they’re a great reminder about how fragile and resilient living creatures are. It keeps you humble.
On a very different note, I’ve also been watching a shocking amount of Korean and Chinese historical drama TV shows. Rebel Princess was the most recent one and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s a Chinese period drama with Zhang Ziyi about a princess navigating love and family against a backdrop of imperial corruption and political schemes. I’ll watch pretty much any historical TV show.