*ONLINE ONLY.* This event is taking place online via Zoom or Facebook.
Artist Jen Torres has two pieces in CTAC-Petoskey's current exhibit, Open Doors. Torres' work embodies architecture, organic form, and a painterly approach to color and layering. This conversation with Torres will cover her past and present work, as well as her influences and creative process.
Join via Zoom.
Artist Statement
I build what I imagine, there’s a lot going on in there, so I will be busy for a while.
My role is not to be static, but to be active, to always question that which surrounds me in my environment and life. By virtue of my creative voice, I have the capacity to draw others in as well. It is a powerful role, one that I passionately embrace. The duality in this pursuit is that no matter how I try, I can only tell my story and it is influenced and formed by the world around me. I cannot speak for others. However, I believe a primary function of art is to be obstruent, to trip one up, to force the viewer and artist alike to have to respond, think, to be moved. The direction is of no consequence. The movement is everything. This is how I can transport others into my work.
About the Artist
Jennifer Torres, born in NYC, studied at the Art Students League and then earned her BFA at the Cooper Union, also in NYC. Her focus was steel fabrication, casting, woodworking, and photography. After graduating from Cooper she trained as a fine cabinetmaker in New England, and then later earned her MFA in Sculpture at the University of Georgia in Athens. Ms. Torres has lived in Hattiesburg, MS for 22 years where she has her studio and teaches sculpture as a tenured professor at The University of Southern Mississippi. She has had many exhibits of her sculptures and installations around the country and has won a number of awards and commissions. Ms. Torres received a highly competitive 2020 MS Visual Arts Fellowship and was chosen as Creative Researcher of the Year at USM’s College of Arts and Letters. Recently she finished a large commission of her Garden Boats, located at Osage Park, in Bentonville, Arkansas.
