Artist Bio

Jaclyn is a contemporary abstract artist living and working between Ann Arbor and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She’s heavily influenced by nature, light, shadow, sculpture and textures. Her work is informed by Art Informel, Abstract Minimalist and Neo-Expressionism.

She’s been an artist for nearly 25 years. Working in a variety of mediums including acrylics, oils, ceramics, woven textures, graphite, and photography. Her work has evolved over the years, starting in realism and expanding now to abstract, organic and sculptural. She’s earned a BFA and studied art history, design and learned classic painting techniques. It wasn’t until years later she combined nature and abstract for the first time. It was electric and intuitive all at once for her. She knew she had found her voice and her medium for expression.

Jaclyn has shown her work in New York, LA, Chicago and the Midwest. She’s studied under artist Ty Nathan Clark. Her work is influenced by Leonardo Drew, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, El Antasui, Andy Goldsworth, Ibrahim Mahama and more.

As a nature artist, Jaclyn’s work gives back to its source. Her work supports global reforestation through her partnership with non-profit, OneTreePlanted. Their efforts and tree planting serve to keep our earth’s natural diversity intact and support the ecosystems and wildlife within them for generations to come.

Artist Statement

Our connection to nature is ancestral. There are connections we recognize easily- beauty, nutrients and life. But what interests me is what happens when we pay attention to the small moments. How if you pause to notice them, nature can be a powerfully grounding force.

My artist process is equal parts foraging, collection and preservation as it is creation. I often travel to locations to discover and collect organic material. Once I have it in the studio, I begin my preservation through drying, resins and hardeners where needed. It’s a slow process that allows me to meditate on what parts of this piece drew me to it and deserve to be on display.

My art is an invitation to linger on the diverse, unexpected and understated moments in the natural world. While my work reimagines these moments in nature, it aim is to spark a curiosity within viewers. “I’ve never seen that kind of movement within bark before”, ‘The way lichen species climb is something I’ve never noticed.’ This curiosity creates space to consider how they could see nature themselves with a new lens.

And that new lens is powerful in an ever distracting world. Because it’s hard to feel awe and be anxious about all the items on your to-do list. It’s difficult to be in a mindset of discovery and be lamenting about something that happened yesterday. I hope to connect others to how tapping into nature’s diversity can bring them into the present. And to see how grounding taking a few moments to notice can be.

How does the theme ‘Biosphere’ play a role in your work?

My work revolves around discovering, displaying and meditating on the diversity of our natural world. Through my work I focus on calling attention to the small moments in nature for others to observe and internalize. I hope to draw humans closer to nature and all the diversity and unseen complexity, not just what we can extract from it. So I believe the theme of ‘Biosphere’ is central to my work.

To break it down further, at first glance it appears I focus primarily on the diversity of flora, the fauna is present if the viewer knows where to look. For example, the beetle trails on the underside of bark where a beetle lived its whole life. Or the squirrel teeth marks on the walnut shells as they feverishly prep for winter. Or the structural detail and beauty of an abandoned paper wasp nest that once hosted a hive of active insects.

By reimagining small, diverse moments in nature, I present it in a way that can be felt and appreciated by our current day society. I hope to be a contributing factor, even if on a small scale, to us one day revering our environment and nature in a way that we once did.

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