Location: United States
Jena Priebe Likes to Make Art
Conceptual sculptor Jena Priebe has always been encouraged to be creative. From constant puzzles and anagrams as a child, to the tearing apart and repairing of old cars with her brothers as a teenager, the spark of seeing things just a little bit differently has fueled her artistic endeavors. She’s inherited her mother’s antique love affair and the coveting of old found objects. This fascination is the fire in her artwork.
She uses a myriad of media. She assembles using mirrors, glass, machine age artifacts, antiquated found objects, metals, adhesives and the guts of machines. Some things are haggled over, bartered for, unearthed in a forgotten family attic or pulled from the depths of tangled industrial salvage yards. Objects that have been forgotten are reclaimed and given a breath of new life.
Having come from a very rural area in Michigan she is fascinated with the social obsession with technology and the counterintuitive behavior society exhibits toward their natural habitat. She focuses on challenging our current state of mind through art as metaphor.
Ultimately she wants to express the joy and magic of those things we often take for granted. To capture the simplicity of wonder we sometimes forget for our everyday surroundings.
Machine Age Noir- These pieces are a part of a greater concept that incorporates machine age artifacts into a symbolic flower garden. This flower garden is representative of our continuing growth in technology and our removal from nature. Using Machine Age (1880-1945) artifacts from the century that really started the great shift towards technology is the soul of this concept. This functional lighted piece is also a wonderful play on light and shadow which is another underlying theme of my work in general. I call it Machine Age Noir.
Helianthus Annuus is the latin form of Sunflower. 60x16, 2011
Anthurium scherzerianum is the latin form of Flamingo flower. 16x9, 2011
Bellis Sylvestris is the latin form of Southern Daisy. 45x12, 2011
Bellis Sylvestris is the latin form of Southern Daisy. 45x12, 2011
Amaranthus Caudatus is the latin form of Love-Lies-Bleeding or Velvet flower. 30x13, 2011
Psychotria Viridis is the latin form of Chacruna or an Equadorian coffee plant. 30x6, 2011
Helianthus Annuus is the latin form of Sunflower. 60x16, 2011
Faustus Lights the Lights is taken from the machine age era deeply inspiring play by Gertrude Stein. 40” round, 2010
I thought it might be fun and a bit cheeky to create a mini series of idiom based art. I wanted to make a clear depiction of my pun or call to interest a certain concept with my art. I have a piece called "frame of mind" that quite literally is just that with a late 1800's crackle glazed frame around a bevy of antique paper and grey's anatomy drawings of the brain and mind... Also i have a complicated NASA instrument case that shows our passage through time and the fact that it is so very precious. This is entitled "time is precious".
This light-hearted, cheeky, conceptual expression is close to my heart and i will continue to expand on this assemblage series using various mixed media.
Antique gears, vintage newspaper, hand written dentist cards, spectacles, NASA instrument case, vintage film reel, magnifying glasses, cast hand....
This box has a complex pulley system with a handle on the side to make it all work. Its tiny solar system is seen through a magnifying lens. It shows us how our complicated lives exist through time and how that time is so precious and should be used wisely. We are always reinventing ourselves daily and making changes that better refine our time and lives. This piece is a reminder of that precious time and to be grateful of it when we open our eyes each and every day and start anew.
"Time is Precious"
8x18x13
Multi-Media
Antique gears, vintage newspaper, hand written dentist cards, spectacles, NASA instrument case, vintage film reel, magnifying glasses, cast hand....
This box has a complex pulley system with a handle on the side to make it all work. Its tiny solar system is seen through a magnifying lens. It shows us how our complicated lives exist through time and how that time is so precious and should be used wisely. We are always reinventing ourselves daily and making changes that better refine our time and lives. This piece is a reminder of that precious time and to be grateful of it when we open our eyes each and every day and start anew.
"Time is Precious"
8x18x13
Multi-Media
Antique gears, vintage newspaper, hand written dentist cards, spectacles, NASA instrument case, vintage film reel, magnifying glasses, cast hand....
This box has a complex pulley system with a handle on the side to make it all work. Its tiny solar system is seen through a magnifying lens. It shows us how our complicated lives exist through time and how that time is so precious and should be used wisely. We are always reinventing ourselves daily and making changes that better refine our time and lives. This piece is a reminder of that precious time and to be grateful of it when we open our eyes each and every day and start anew.
"Time is Precious"
8x18x13
Multi-Media
“Frame of Mind”
24x18x2
Multi-Media
Turn of the century music sheets, grey's anatomy pages, Late 1800's bubble glass frame, custom crackle glazing, copper wire.
Frame of mind is a cheeky idiom. Literally framed is grey's anatomy's drawings of the brain and mind. The bits of paper surrounding it and the layers cut into the drawing represent the general chaos that most of us feel in our mind.
“Frame of Mind”
24x18x2
Multi-Media
Turn of the century music sheets, grey's anatomy pages, Late 1800's bubble glass frame, custom crackle glazing, magnifying glass, copper wire.
Frame of mind is a cheeky idiom. Literally framed is grey's anatomy's drawings of the brain and mind. The bits of paper surrounding it and the layers cut into the drawing represent the general chaos that most of us feel in our mind.
“Anthurium Scherzerianum”
“Helianthus Annuus ”
“Anthurium Scherzerianum”
“Bellis Sylvestris”
“Bellis Sylvestris”
“Amaranthus Caudatus”
“Psychotria Viridis”
“Helianthus Annuus”
“Faustus Lights the Lights”
“Time is Precious”
“Time is Precious”
“Time is Precious”
“Time is Precious”
“Frame of Mind”
“Frame of Mind”
