In the Studio With Sculptor Jenna Clouse - Inside Art with Michael Rose

In the Studio With Sculptor Jenna Clouse - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

It takes an artist to change the way everyday things are viewed. In the art of Providence sculptor Jenna Clouse, objects like hammers and bolt cutters take center stage. Her practice centers quotidian items but also reshapes them and changes the way they are experienced. She is making exciting experimental work that deserves attention.

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Originally from California, Clouse moved to Providence over a decade ago when her husband was accepted into a RISD Master’s program. She earned her BA in Fine Arts with a focus on Sculpture from Point Loma Nazarene University. While in college, she took courses at the New York Center for Art and Media Studies as well as at Florence University of the Arts. She has exhibited her work regularly in California, and Rhode Island viewers recently saw her sculptures in A Still Life Juried Exhibition at the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative.

 

Clouse took some time away from making art in order to raise her three young children and to focus on her job as a consultant in the toy industry. She is now actively creating again and is re-energized in the pursuit.

 

 

Describing her place in the Rhode Island art scene, Clouse explains in part, “Since the restoration of my art practice two years ago, which was catalyzed by the transformation of our garage into a studio, I have kept my head to the ground to focus on figuring out what type of work I wanted to make in this new season of life. Now that I am much more confident in my work I feel more ready to make inroads with this creative community!”

 

The converted garage where Clouse makes her work is a pristine white workspace brimming with tools. Her art hinges on the reproduction of utilitarian objects. In her practice, she transforms hard steel into rubbery sculptural artworks that often leverage buoyant colors and unexpected shapes.

 

Asked about her process, Clouse explains, “Mold-making and casting are central processes for me and are often the generative fuel that gets me moving towards an idea. At the most basic, my process involves the selection of a utilitarian object and then using mold making and casting to force the object through a material transformation. My particular interest, though, is in pushing these processes beyond what they are meant to do – using them wrongly or strangely to the point that they produce effortful residue and even failure. Then I take the crusty results and present the evidence of my labors as valuable through different manners of display and preservation. I am really interested in treating everyday objects with absurd measures of experimentation and play to the point that they embody human sensations.”

 

 

This artist’s sculptures are at turns unexpected, perplexing, and freaky. But they encourage viewers to look closely and to reconsider their expectations for material and process.

 

Clouse intends to provoke a reaction from those who experience her artworks. When asked what she hopes viewers take away from her sculptures, the artist says, “This is going to sound strange but I love it when someone looks at my work and says it makes them feel a bit weird! That unsettled feeling can be a real magnet to keep someone engaged longer with the work as they try to figure out where the tension is coming from. The utilitarian objects I start with are really only valued for their usability – stripped of that function, and rendered materially-strange, they are able to take on a new life. Someone recently told me that my piece It’s Dangerous Stuff – which is a fiberglass shell of a knotted-up vacuum hose – gave material form to their own feeling of anxiety, and I loved that.”

 

Clouse has been actively making work and exploring processes for some time. Now, she is focused on growing her practice through more education. Asked what is next for her she says, “My entire focus this fall is working towards graduate applications. I long thought that my opportunity to do graduate school was over since there used to be more of a bias against older students and especially mothers. Now it feels like graduate programs are actually excited to include students like me in their programs. This is a huge dream of mine and even the chance to try to fulfill it feels huge! I am so thankful that my husband and kids want me to go forward in this. My 9 year old wrote me a note recently that said ‘tame your ideas by starting!’ She’s right!”

 

 

It will be exciting to see what comes next for Clouse, an artist who is passionately pursuing her dream to create sculptural artworks that make audiences see things anew.

 

Learn more about Jenna Clouse at www.jennaclouse.com, or follow her on Instagram at @jennaclousestudio.