Page 13 - the NOISE November 2012

Musician is an example of the diversity of work by cover artist Jon Jensen.
PAPER CORNUCOPIA
“I mostly paint people, and my paintings are kind of impressionistic,” cover artist Jon Jensen tells me. “Basically I try to do a piece that peo- ple can come to their own conclusions about, but also captivate them so they can day dream. I see my paintings as being entertainment.”
“I usually think about it for a while,” he tells me about his creative process. “Then I start and it takes me a little while to get going. Hopefully it takes on a life of its own. I think of things while I’m painting and it becomes its own story while I’m working on it. That adds to the element of it that lets people pick up on things and make their own ideas about it. I try to throw in loose background details that can give people thoughts.”
“I’ve always drawn and began painting in 1984 when I was at Northern Arizona University,” Mr. Jensen says. “I went two or three semesters there studying art and then decided to go off and live. I’ve had shows in different places and lived all over: San Francisco, New York City, Ida-
ho and Oregon. I went to junior high and high school here in Flagstaff.”
Mr. Jensen tells me where he draws inspira- tion for his paintings from, “People, cities and dwellings and the stuff people do and how they live. I really like little houses and cities. I wonder, ‘What’s this guy doing here? What’s this person doing?’ I always conjure up ideas. When people see my paintings they come up with their own stories, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Mr. Jensen has designed many of the ban- ners you may have seen hanging from the street lamps south of the tracks, in Downtown Flagstaff. “For the past couple of years I’ve also
done the posters for the Vagina Monologues and a couple pieces for Theatrikos. I really like Flagstaff.”
On the weekends, Mr. Jensen can be found at the Del Rio Café, where he tells me they make a really delicious Mexican breakfast. This November a selection of Mr. Jensen’s paintings will be on display at Mountain Oasis Interna- tional Restaurant, located at 11 East Aspen.
WEARABLE WOOL
“I originally am from Northern England/Scot- land, but I’ve been all over and lived in Arizona for over 30 years,” felt artist Louise Hall tells me. I lived south of Tucson for many years. I had a gallery and studio there. I moved up here around 1997. I live off-grid and I try to live as much of a sustainable life as I can.”
This November the felted hats, scarves, handbags and vessels created by Louise Hall are featured at Arizona Handmade/Fire on the Mountain Gallery.
Ms. Hall explains the process of making felt pieces. “Felt is one of the oldest fabrics known to man,” she says. “I basically work with the raw fibers. You take the raw fleece and using soap and water massage it to initially felt it. After it is felted and it’s holding together as cloth, then you do the fulling action, which is the shrinking action. It then makes a really strong fabric. Felt is a strong material and it’s water and dirt repel- lant. I use all wool and silk. When I use silk, I am up-cycling old silk material.”
“At the moment a lot of people are talking about felting, but they’re actually knitting,” she explains. “It’s not really felting, it’s fulling. Felt- ing is becoming a lot more popular in the States now, but there isn’t a whole lot I see around
here. The Native cultures are doing some.”
The artist dyes the wool in bright, rich colors, and sometimes uses natural dye from plants. She shows me a scarf dyed from local Mullen,
and another dyed from Sun Flowers. Some of her pieces have small shining crystal beads or fresh water pearls sewn on. Each piece has a variety of texture.
“Each one is its own thing,” she says and shows me a half dozen woolen hats, some shaped like berets, others like something you would see in a Dr. Seuss illustration. “There are different types of things I do. These are all unique; even if I tried, I couldn’t make some- thing the same twice. Most of the things I make I consider wearable collage. I really love texture, so it’s fun because I can really play with it. I have a fine art background so I’m enjoying doing something that’s just a little more fun, but I’m still able to use my knowledge of color.”
I ask Ms. Hall how she first started felting, “Well, a friend of mine gets the English Country Living magazine and showed me an article on felting. It was so weird how it just grabbed me. I liked what I saw in the picture because it was very free form. So I started experimenting with some wool and I made some flowers.” She
shows me some wool flowers she has made, “Kind of like these. They took me all day, and I
thought, This isn’t really going to work.”
“A couple of years ago I went back to Eng-
land and I was up in the North, and there was a young woman who had a store in the town that my mom lived in, and it’s very much sheep country there,” she continues. “I was talking with her and it was just resonating. She told me she was doing a felting workshop. I did a one-day workshop and it just clicked for me.”
“I have a background in printmaking, but I haven’t done any for years, I just got complete- ly burned out on the whole art scene, basically, and just took a break. This has just been very freeing. When I got back from England I threw myself into this, and have been producing ever since.”
An artist reception will be held for Louise Hall at the Arizona Handmade/Fire on the Mountain Gallery, located at 13 N. San Francis- co, during the First Friday ArtWalk, November 2, from 6PM to 9PM. AzHandmade.com
WHAT CATCHES THE MIND
This month at West of the Moon Gallery the paintings of Kelly Janecek will be featured. Ms. Janecek tells me about herself and the art that she will be sharing with the Flagstaff com- munity. “My husband, TJ, and I moved back to Flagstaff in 1998 after several years in Tucson. Tucson did right by us — good friends, good jobs — but we were cooked, missed the cooler temps and seasons, and our families. So we packed up the essentials and the dog and headed north. It was a good call. Not only are our two sons close to grandparents, aunts and uncles; but the town, the canyon country and the community is dear to our hearts.”
“I started painting about 4 years ago,” she says. “After six years at the Grand Canyon Trust, I left to have my second son and be an at-home mum. Herding two rowdy boys sort of broad-sided me and when my youngest was three years old I finally had a chance to come up for air. I had always wanted to paint since I was young but I also had a lot of other things I wanted to do and spent my 20s traveling and
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