Leaders, Dreamers & Rebels
by Jena Priebe
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For your own Leaders, Dreamers & Rebels a commissioned piece by the Los Angeles Times for the LA Times Festival of Books you reference Rene Fulop-Miller’s book of the same title. Who are the Leaders, Dreamers & Rebels who inspire you?
It’s a long list of Leaders, Dreamers & Rebels who inspire my life and my art equally. My amazing family has been long supporters of my crazy ideas and artist dreams. They’ve truly been an inspiration. Especially my mom. She really encouraged me to dream big and rely on my creativity and imagination as my most valuable tools. |
photo: courtesy of the artist |
Also, writers like Jules Verne, Kurt Vonnegut and George Orwell have always helped igniting my creative spark.
Artists whom have really influenced my craft are Alice Aycock, subversive surrealist artist Louise Bourgeois & Frank Gehry for his never ending bending of the rules and inventive ingenuity.
The Secret Lives of Books is one of your works for Bibliothecaphilia a MASSMOCA exhibition on view until January 2016. What is the backstory here?
The Secret Lives of Books comes from the idea that every book is magical. It holds the power to transport you to another place and time. They hold the capability to gift you with immeasurable knowledge and endless experiences.
I grew up in a very rural part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and wasn’t allowed to watch T.V. Books were my entertainment and quite often, my escape.
Other than running around our 160-acre farm wild, doing chores or following one of my three older brothers around, I read constantly.
By the time I graduated High School, I felt that I had been in 100 different places and had lived 100 different lives through books.
I feel that reading gave me the bravery and ability to take on the world and really set my imagination on fire in regards to art. I wanted to honor this beautiful relationship with books by personifying the potential and magnificence that they hold through the piece entitled “The Secret Lives of Books”.
Artists whom have really influenced my craft are Alice Aycock, subversive surrealist artist Louise Bourgeois & Frank Gehry for his never ending bending of the rules and inventive ingenuity.
The Secret Lives of Books is one of your works for Bibliothecaphilia a MASSMOCA exhibition on view until January 2016. What is the backstory here?
The Secret Lives of Books comes from the idea that every book is magical. It holds the power to transport you to another place and time. They hold the capability to gift you with immeasurable knowledge and endless experiences.
I grew up in a very rural part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and wasn’t allowed to watch T.V. Books were my entertainment and quite often, my escape.
Other than running around our 160-acre farm wild, doing chores or following one of my three older brothers around, I read constantly.
By the time I graduated High School, I felt that I had been in 100 different places and had lived 100 different lives through books.
I feel that reading gave me the bravery and ability to take on the world and really set my imagination on fire in regards to art. I wanted to honor this beautiful relationship with books by personifying the potential and magnificence that they hold through the piece entitled “The Secret Lives of Books”.
What is your link to the music world as we see that you have used plenty of sheet music in your own art? On another note, what music do you listen to use as a mood enhancer, to get you pumped up, to deal with disappointment, to meet a deadline?
Music is a universal language that I’ve been obsessed with as long as I can remember.
I love singing myself and even went to college initially for vocal performance.
Some of my best memories of my dad are of his singing to us in his deep, rich voice.
As for what I listen to for a mood enhancer, it truly depends on what I need at the time. Nina Simone if I need strength. Benny Latimore if I’m feeling groovy. Chemical Brothers if I need to go on a run and sweat. Otis Redding and Joni Mitchell if I want to remember my childhood…If I need to meet a deadline, I have a play list on Spotify called WES and it is all of my favorite songs from Wes Anderson movies and it really focuses me.
Your works speak of a striking imagination and ability to work with different materials and techniques. What is your opinion of artists who rely on sensationalism rather than craftsmanship and technique?
Thank-you, that is so kind.
I think that there is certainly value in all artists and their chosen medium. If an artist’s work makes you feel something… anything, then that person has achieved his/her goal as an artist.
It is your choice to determine the value of art within your own self and environment. That is the beauty of art. You don’t have to love it or like it for it to exist and have merit. It is often the artists’ reaction to what and where society is at the moment.
We see your involvement and concern about the inner workings of heart and mind through the spectrum of your work. What is the role of the arts in our modern reality with complex features and busy people?
You’re right; I am concerned about our current life and times. Apathy and technology rules, moving us further away from the land and each other. I feel that my strongest voice is through my art.
The arts have always been a reflection on society and current times. Whether it’s politics or societal issues in particular. Most artists I meet are very tuned into and concerned about these things. Their work shows that.
I firmly believe that the arts act as the beating heart of any society. If you want to get to know a place at its core, seek out the artists and they will show you the true face of that particular community.
Politicians, economists, artists and everyone in between, what can we take from each other to benefit our own communities and the world in its entirety?
We all have something to learn from one another.
All of us have ideas that deserve a voice. All of us need to learn better tolerance of one another when our ideas don’t co-mingle.
It’s important to remain patient with one another and to understand that we all have so much to gain from working together and everything to lose if we can’t figure out how.