About Jen

My obsession with dogs began in the early '80's when I received a terrier-cockapoo mix puppy, Rudy, as a gift from my parents. I suppose my obsession with art started a few years earlier with my first box of crayons, but it didn't take long for both loves to mix. Soon Rudy was the star of all my school art projects. Later, Ginger (a pug) and Nelson (an Alaskan malamute) joined the picture- literally and figuratively- as members of the family and models for my drawings and paintings. They also joined us on family camping trips, wilderness backpacking trips in the Adirondacks, and weekends on the dog show circuit as I showed competitvely in 4-H obedience and AKC conformation and Junior Showmanship. I suppose while most kids were hanging out at the mall, cruising the dating scene and doing all the social activities most kids do in high school, I was holed up in my bedroom filling sketchbooks, hanging out with the dogs in the backyard eagerly gulping up issues of Dog Fancy, or memorizing Robert Service poetry which I thought was the most beautiful writing on earth.

I graduated from Wells College in 1999 with a degree in Visual Arts and also studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan. I spent several interesting years post-graduation living and working in New York City, where I met my first greyhound face-to-face. She belonged to the pastor of my church and I was smitten! It wasn't long until Lucy (PW's Dixiesquick) and Clifford (Halftime Kid) came into my life. They, and their canine friends, are the prime inspirations for my work.

Lucy, Clifford and I now live and make art in the Finger Lakes region of Central N.Y.