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Meet the Miniaturist Jen O’Connell from New York City. Jen is a middle school arts educator and multi-media artist working in small scale. Jen crafts art dolls and other scaled down props and constructs diorama scenes which she brings to life through animation. Jen’s art background is in printmaking and illustration however during a recent dark period in her life, and the subsequent Covid-19 pandemic, she started to explore new ways to express herself and her creativity in an effort not only provide a distraction from her isolation but to help her move through the personal trauma and to help provide a “pathway to healing.” Calling this her “Next Jen”, she began to build art dolls in her own likeness and place them in miniatures scenes with autobiographical themes. She spent months learning and researching animation and used her new skills to further tell her stories and to bring her work and world to life. Her style, which she calls “magical realism”, provides a fresh perspective on the small scale world. She started to post her work on her Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/known.asmys… and quickly gained an audience of followers who identified with her narrative and catching the eye of curators at the Thierry Goldberg Gallery in New York City (https://thierrygoldberg.com/) where she will have a showing later this month. In this MTM, we hear more about Jen’s art evolution, visit her in her working studio and learn more about her building and filming techniques. We also get a behind the scenes look at some of her work which is in progress and about to head to her new gallery show!
miniature animation
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