Jennifer Mathis

When we are small, we are left alone to make art in any manner possible. Nobody asks why you do it. I was no different, except that I wanted to keep making it forever. I didn’t believe it possible for me to do that as a grownup, so I abandoned art completely to pursue an architecture degree.

I obtained a Master of Architecture degree in 1999, and became a licensed architect in 2003. Even though those two accomplishments were impressive to most, they did not make me feel accomplished.

Something was missing.

In 2006, I received a bag full of acrylic paints as a birthday gift. Having never tried painting before, I dallied a little, and then a bit more…and then something woke up inside me, and brought heavy artillery with it.

Putting art aside because it isn’t “something responsible adults do” was no longer an option.

I make art because I have to. I don’t mean “have to” in the sense that someone is holding a weapon on me; I mean in the sense that when I don’t make art, I feel like something is missing. I become a little dead inside.

I am an architect.

I am a painter, a sculptor, a cartoonist.

I’m not chronologically young, but I’m a “young artist.”

I don’t have an MFA. I don’t want one.

I am an autodidactic kitschmonger.