We explored a resident photographer series, which featured different posts called Behind The Lens. I would like to thank Jay Schimpf for her hard work and interesting pieces over the last year. We look to explore new resident photographers down the line, for now, we will turn our focus to music, leaving the rest to ponder until it feels right again. Thanks again Jay!
Nationally exhibiting sculptor and photographer Jessica Schimpf graduated in 2010 with her B.F.A. Degree from The Maryland Institute College of Art. Jessica is a recipient of MICA’s departmental grants, scholarships and academic achievment awards. At MICA she studied the art of metal fabrication and traditional lost wax casting in the school’s metal foundry. After graduation she started working with hand blown glass and opened her first business called Mantra Glass (CEO, co-owner and Glass Designer).
Jessica is an exhibiting artist that shows her work through public installations, gallery exhibitions and private collections across the U.S. She has worked at The Sculpture Foundation, where she and her team fabricated “The Seven Year Itch” (monumental sculpture of Marilyn Monroe for the city of Chicago), and “American Gothic” (sculpture for the city of Rome). She has also worked for Oxman Studios to create a monumental bronze sculpture “Dignity” for a horse farm in Kentucky, and “Encore” a stainless steel monumental sculpture (for the city of Washington, DC). Several large public installation projects of her personal work include North Bennington Art Park, VT., Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center Reisterstown, MD., and Salem Art Works Salem., NY.
Press notorioty includes The New York Times, Landscape Architecture Magazine, and MICA Juxtapositions.
Jessica’s work spanses several different mediums and forms. Her current work investigates the ephemeral qualities of living plants, organic matter, and the reproduction of organic materials drawn on paper. Her work offers a glimpse into the fleeting, dissapearing beauty of organic matter and energy that can be captured in the natural world. Her work stems from her childhood explorations where her home was surrounded by a large community of people, farms and hundreds of acres of protected land participating in The Farmland Preservation of Central New Jersey.
Jessica’s interest in preserving unique natural forms also stems from her studies on the impact of society on the landscape. To learn more about Jessica, have a look at her website and some of the amazing work she is currently doing.
Hazy Acres 