Jenesse

About the Artist

I was born and raised in Baltimore by my mother and grandmother in the 70’s and 80’s. I studied ballet and other forms of dance from a young age and came from a home that always encouraged creativity in the form of singing, theater, dance, art, sewing and crafting. Anything that kept our hands and minds busy and out of trouble. I learned to sew and create costumes and clothing from a young age from both my mother and grandmother, taking an interest in fashion and, later, interior design. In high school I studied theater, music, and voice. After graduating, I travelled extensively, singing with different bands and recording. After marrying and becoming a mother, I set most of my music aside and became more interested in handcrafts, got my degree in Residential Interior Design and began upcycling furniture and restyling clothing for resale at craft and antique fairs as well as selling vintage clothing in my Etsy shop and doing custom costume design and interior design work on a contract basis. I am now continuing my work in that arena, as well as working full-time with Art Clothing Designer Lee Andersen, where I am a design assistant and oversee the sewing factory floor.

Artist's Statement

I see art in what most people see as trash. I will see a broken down dresser on the side of the road with no drawers, but if the "bones" are good. then it could make a really good kitchen island. I find clothes at a secondhand store that may be way past ever being back "in-style", but the fabric is gorgeous, so I make something new. I was a foster parent for a decade and adopted my youngest child through the system. What most people saw as throwaways, I saw as beautiful, broken masterpieces that needed mending. That is what my art is. I take the broken, the throwaways, and try to mend them and give them new life. We ALL need second chances.