About the Artist

Istudied art at University of Latvia and get my professional degree in arts and pedagogy in 2006. Few years later I started to work at a national museum of art, I left my brushes and canvas behind because it felt like a sin to paint and to work with the greatest painters in Latvia at the same time. If I can’t be as good as they are, I said to myself, I shouldn’t touch my brush.
After 15 years of working in the museum field and a few bad life crisis later, I slowly grow back to who I am. The struggle between fears of losing myself again and the desire to open up and find trust in happiness is very similar to what I experienced when I started to work in museums and art galleries. Back then when I chose to be smart and tamed, I always said to others that art is the place where anyone can be free, but I somehow never let it be so for myself. I became an art viewer and a guide for others. This freedom that art holds is about self-esteem, self-love and courage to speak and finally to be who you actually are.

About Artist’s Work:

I grow up between wild nature and soon found out that you need very peaceful state of heart to deal with that. Mind can blow you up very quickly which heart never does.
I clearly remember few times in my childhood when I was in dangers. I always played with a sleepy cows when I was a child. I sneak under theres necks and gently heckle soft, brown, fluffy skin. It was like a magic for me, like the water skin on bloody unrecognizable river. I was an only child in family, there was no another kids around and animals was my companies and bodies. I speak to them in my mind.
One time I put my hands around cows neck look in her brown sad ayes and gently start brushing her skin, she look at me quietly but something was different. I have strange feeling in my stomach that something is wrong. I took a rope to which it is tied and pull up bit. When cow as I thought stand up I immediately recognize that she is a bull. Go close to bull was a big taboo for children, my parents were very strict about that. You never know what is in his mind, he is strong and aggressive. Only my dad can feed and lead him to pasture and back in barn. When my grandma was young she was famous for how good she can leed crazy mad bulls from barn to shielding. She was a tiny woman with very tender heart, but bulls some how listen to her. When I stood next to this huge animal I didn’t know that yet. I stay stiff because I know I did something wrong, fears come trough me like lightning. The bull behave like a mirror back to me, his nostrils blew air nervously and his eyes were wide open. I was three or four years old but I already know that if you want to deal with animals no fears allowed. So I stood up, put my hand again on bull’s neck and when leave him quietly and peacefully. No doubts, no fears. The peaceful state of heart will lead you better when you ever know.
The same feeling I get in painting process. Art and nature to me is the same because I believe it hold in the same instincts of creativity. You can’t do good art if you aren’t brave enough or free from minds programs and cages. And when there is me, who lose herself in creativity like in birth process, little dirty, and very painful if you try to calculate it with mind. It is like fall in love again after get your heart completely broken at first place. So for now I touch canvas gently with small brushes but I dream that one day I will paint huge paintings with abstract objects on them and lead these composition with love as wild quiet animals.

About the Artist

Jennifer Kumer is a self-taught abstract textile artist who creates artworks with organic shapes, bold lines, and colors using a variety of textile techniques. In her practice, she often incorporates punch needle, embroidery, felt, as well as mixed-media art techniques to create her textural pieces. After 10 years of living in the United States, she is now based in the Netherlands where she lives and works from her home studio. She graduated from Maharishi International University in 2017 with a double degree in Sustainable Living and Media & Communications, a pioneering university known for its ‘consciousness-based education’ model and for incorporating Transcendental Meditation into its curriculum.

Jennifer draws inspiration from her multicultural upbringing, personal relationships, and profound experiences with creative coaching and therapy. She began making mixed-media abstract art when she moved to Amsterdam in 2017. In 2020, she became a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach and began facilitating workshops at retreats and offering creative coaching sessions for people desiring to reconnect with their creativity. The same year, her first exhibition “Empathic Wisdom” was held at 4bid Gallery. Since COVID-19, she moved and now lives in Soest, a small town in central Netherlands, and is focused on creating a new body of textile works from her home studio.

About Artist’s Work:

The driving force in my work is textures and form, consisting of abstract, organic shapes that speak to me as the primal source of imagination. It represents the state prior to meaning-making and is therefore open and free for interpretation. My work is a celebration of the beauty of the unconscious and an expression of my desire to understand the world around me through the lens of abstraction.

The techniques I use in creating my work, mainly through punch needle and embroidery, both have a repetitive quality that allows me to “un-think” and be in the moment. The making process connects me to the deeper, more intuitive side of myself and the process is slow, contemplative, and meditative.

The materials I choose to work with also tell a story. My work is made with a variety of natural materials such as wool and cotton but also materials not typically used in traditional fiber art such as recycled sari silk, bedsheets, or clothing garments. I’m always experimenting with new ways to incorporate natural fibers and yarn from recycled, upcycled, or sustainably sourced materials in my artworks. The tactile materials are able to evoke the feeling of warmth, calmness, and comfort.

The ideas and inspirations that inform my work are very varied. I may work from sketchbook scribbles or use a particular yarn or material as my starting point. I always consciously try to take an element from my current work into the next. This gives continuity whilst progressing and developing myself and what I do.