31 Women – March 17th: Jen Cole
Face of the Mirror, 2019
Monotype
An Interview with Jen Cole
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
JC: I grew up in Southern California, the only girl in a four-sibling household. Because of that I had my own room for the most part. My parents encouraged my natural making proclivities and put an old door on sawhorses in my room to use as a table. It gave me a place to make and experiment without interruption. It was a place away from brothers and a place to learn to be with myself. Looking back, I realize I never really acknowledged what a wonderful and supportive situation that was!
MKM: Why did you pursue art and where did you study?
JC: I pursued art because it was what I found enjoyable. I also got encouragement for my efforts. But it wasn’t really until college that I discovered the type of art that I wanted to pursue. I went to undergraduate school at several places- first Reed College where I was not a good fit and then at UCSB, and then at Stanislaus State in Turlock CA! It was at UC Santa Barbara that I happened to take a printmaking class, not really knowing anything about it. I had a wonderful (and handsome) TA and I was hooked.
MKM: Did you have any memorable teachers?
JC: In graduate school at San Francisco State , I had memorable teachers. (The handsome TA was great but mostly handsome!) John Ilhe really inspired a kind of technical appreciation that printmakers seems to get wrapped up in. There is so much technical jargon and protocol – printmakers can spend hours discussing the merits of wheat paste and paper. After graduate school I was lucky to meet Kay Bradner owner of Katherine Lincoln Press. Working for Kay is where my real knowledge of printmaking took off. I learned to print all kinds of prints, wipe all kinds or ways and appreciate printmaking in an entirely new way. From the “grunts” perspective to the distinguished printmakers proof. I believe Kay was the best teacher I ever had, and I still call her occasionally for help.
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? rituals, patterns?
JC: My daily routine is relaxed now as I retired my jewelry business when my husband retired. I usually manage to get to Kala three days a week and other days I work at home or do “laundry” (the symbolic word for home activities). But mornings are always devoted to a meditation practice and walking the dog or/and yoga. If I can do these activities before arriving at Kala, I am ready to work.
I love the process of printmaking so much that I often let this take a long time and finishing a print is a nice outcome that sometimes happens. It means I go to work and really just enjoy whatever problem presents itself during the making of a plate. I work with very little premeditated imagery. My prints evolve and transform a great deal over time. Physical labor is definitely part of my process- scraping, burnishing, re-etching, re-aquatinting. For monotypes this means many layers and covering up parts of images that don’t work and tearing images down, whatever it takes to discover what I am looking for.
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of?
JC: Being proud of artwork is a relatively new experience. When I started teaching monotype at Kala about five years ago, I realized that I was actually very well informed. Students give so much, and I have learned to become a better teacher as well.
MKM: What has been a seminal experience?
JC: Most of my seminal experiences have been of the internal kind of work–which most definitely is expressed in some way through my art. Maybe my most seminal experience was to finally understand that what I was learning through meditation and internal self-exploration was actually expressed visually in my art. It’s hard to verbalize but the joy that comes when working on printmaking is such a lovely and opening experience and that experience becomes the image.
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
JC: There are many artists whose work I love- Paul Klee, Kiki Smith, Kazuko Watanabi, Sean Caulfield, Golbanou Moghaddas… so many more. I like so many kinds of images. But I love prints most of all – above all other forms of art.
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
JC: The best advice that was ever given me was when my kids were young and a colleague of my husband said, “be flexible”. Buddha has a lot or good advice too like “things change”.
MKM: What is your dream project?
JC: My dream project would be to have a year to just work away on prints; actually I am living my dream now!
