Bio

Artist Statement

Jennifer Rugge is an earth artist. She creates her art using organic materials and mixing paints and clay slips from natural minerals. Her work engages a presence of life from the land of our ancient ancestral roots in color and composition and with pictographs from early languages. These elements speak to the mystery that shadows the radiance of the inner voice and her journey with Art.

The collection of minerals and ochre clays are just the beginning of the entire process to create environmentally safe Art. From here these ochres are broken up, ground and finely pulverized into pigments.  Adding organic binders to raw clays and minerals introduces a method to make your own paints and slips ready to employ onto the canvas or clay surfaces. The processes engage the self with the earth and to the Art.  Therefore, art takes on a significant connection with the land and its creator.

  Artist Bio

One of five children, Jennifer roamed up and down the beaches of California and Mexico. Camping along the shores with her family, they gathered food from the sea, slept with the scorpions by night, and explored the creatures and features of the tide pools. These explorations sent Jennifer on a captivating journey to learn more of the land and the different languages of its peoples.

While living in Germany and then in Vienna Austria, Jennifer had the opportunity to take Art classes at the CESMA Formazion e Cultura in northern Italy. The class group traveled the countryside visiting chapels, churches, and monasteries where the early practices of pigment mixtures on frescoes, illuminated writing with symbols and wood panels with gold leaf were studied and then put into practice.  This time spent in Italy would greatly impact Jennifer’s Art.

In Vienna she joined the Albertina Art Museum, visited the Jugendstil haunts and took in the villages of such artists as Monet, Klimt, and Hundertwasser. She helped to organize an art group and Art exhibitions. Upon returning to the States, she was determined to find ways to continue working in earth-friendly methods. This determination led to a closer look at studies of cave art, their possible practices and the cave artists themselves as well as ancient Indigenous practices in the Americas and other places around the globe. In May 2019 Jennifer had the opportunity to hike the outback of northwestern Australia, explore the aboriginal cave and rock art, and enjoyed conversations surrounding their art and history.

Today Jennifer lives in Nevada City, CA.  She continues to collect minerals and ochres, to supplement materials through businesses that make or promote eco-friendly products and to be earth conscious in her endeavors. Morning tea is spent with research and study of ancient and early languages, recording signs from the past and investigating new archaeological finds. Over time she has been able to create a more environmentally safe studio and inspiring Art works.