Jennifer Starkweather

Jennifer Starkweather - Mole Hills - Study 1

Jennifer Starkweather - Mole Hills - Study 2

Jennifer Starkweather - Mole Hills - Study 3

I came late to discovering Jennifer Starkweather. A friend of mine sent me a photo of one of her works last Fall, and I was blown away by the drawing and detail. You can look at her website here, where all these images came from. Her artist's statement is one I can understand and relate to. She is essentially interested in mapping things. Everything from real to imagined places, memories and experiences. I relate to how she describes creating "an annotated catalogue of my daydreams, memories, and ruminations". I often feel, when I am working on a very detailed drawing, that I am on some kind of journey within the drawing. I can see myself walking within the drawing from a bird's eye view. I sometimes think of my drawings as maps where I am designing the layout of a town or neighborhood. I know children draw like this, making landscapes for themselves. It seems like a very human thing to do; to try to locate ourselves within an environment or make up our own environment. I think it's part of comforting ourselves in this large, incomprehensible world. I do like creating an environment wherever I go. I hope it's a good one.