Jen Broemel’s Artist Statement:
This series came together organically around the comfort of friendship, poetry and a love of books. In an attempt to connect outside of a usual practice, pushing away from normal habits and processes, what remained at its core for me was about what is comfortable? What is home? What can create a sense of peace? What pieces of all the places I have been remain close to what I make and who I am now. . . and why?
Over and over again I realize, it is because they bring joy and provide comfort. Friendship, poetry/books and making slowly. These are my things, this is what I always come back to.
The collaboration began as an idea about sharing poems and creating a book. The image of a house evolved as a symbol of comfort as I began to think about what and why I was drawn to create in this way, just as words emerged with new meaning to me from the first few shared pieces of poetry. I decided to follow this urge and to trust what was surfacing, ultimately collecting snippets of the poems and sketching out house forms as I contemplated their meaning. Pages of the book ‘wrote’ themselves as trust flowed freely. Everything just fell into place as I believe they do when we believe in the work we are doing and trust in our own ideas. I have titled the book, All the Places I Have Lived, as a reminder to honor where I come from and where I want to go. The wall series is titled House Cloud and the pieces are refinements of the house form sketches that were doodled during contemplation of the poetry.
Although the pieces for the collaboration came to be independently, finding meaning personally, it would not have come to life without the adjacency and the contribution of the friendship and the trust Jennie provided along the way. I am honored to have shared and received, while creating and transforming right alongside her.
