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Artist:

Jen McCleary

"Meet the Artist" Reception:

Friday, October 14, 7pm - 8:30pm

Ms. McCleary is a graduate of Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pa., with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking. In addition, she holds a Certificate in Graphic Design from Philadelphia's University of the Arts. The roots of her art lie in the process of collecting images, ephemera, and found objects, which she layers, alters, or arranges to create something new. Ms. McCleary says, "I work both digitally as in photo-collage and graphic design, and in more traditional forms creating mixed-media collage and paintings, as well as jewelry made from found and vintage objects."

No matter the medium, Ms. McCleary prefers to work intuitively, letting each piece evolve over time and in unexpected directions. Her work is more a form of exploration, play, or meditation than a deliberate attempt at communicating a specific concept. She does, though, believe that images and objects can act as carriers of meaning and emotional resonance. She brings to her work, symbolism, wonder, hidden connections between things, the passage of time, imagined landscapes, and ways of understanding the world. Her art explores dualities including the man-made vs. the natural worlds, light vs. dark (metaphorically and literally), and complexity vs. simplicity.