Jenny Ibsen
Jenny is a ceramicist, printmaker, and restaurant worker based in Portland. Her art practice is deeply rooted in her community, environment, and the experiences of those around her. For as long as she’s been able, she has worked in the service industry to support her creative practice, and has found community in sharing food with others. For Jenny, her “money work” and artist practice are intertwined— engaging in multiple understandings of service, care, and nourishment, each practice informing each other.
Most recently, Jenny has shifted her practice from carving relief printmaking blocks to handbuilding large ceramic vessels and small ceramic functional ware for dinner tables, incorporating relief printmaking aesthetics.
As an extension of her practice, Jenny hosts a free, public meal series called Fish Picnic, with food that she prepares. Fish Picnic is a public performance piece and a community meal that takes place by the Maine ocean, inviting strangers and friends alike to meet and share bread and stories. Fish Picnic is supported by the generosity of the American Rescue Plan Maine Project Grants and The Kindling Fund, both administered by SPACE Gallery.
“Pest Picnic,” terracotta, slip, underglaze,
12” x 17” x 12”, 2022. Photo: Dana Clark
Jenny works from her shared studio in Brunswick and is a member of Running with Scissors in Portland.
We saw on your website you have “a new love of ceramics”—can you tell us how you began this new creative path and what inspired you?
My new love of ceramics began as work trade in Tucson, Arizona during Covid. I mixed glazes and loaded kilns in exchange for free throwing classes. I was horrible at throwing, and had my heart set on making a colander, so my teacher taught me how to handbuild it—you flatten out a piece of clay and slump it inside a bowl until it becomes firm and holds its shape. It felt so intuitive! That was the first ceramic piece I’d made.
I began relief printmaking in college, and have been practicing it for 5 years since in my studio in Brunswick. I really love the tactile quality of carving blocks and the mental challenge of figuring out the negative and positive spaces to create imagery. When I moved back to Portland, I started taking handbuilding classes at Portland Pottery, and immediately loved it. I had the most amazing teacher, Julie Cunningham, who has lessons for some structure, but really utilizes the time for open, self-guided projects.
From first Fish Picnic dinner in Sept. 2022 at Fort Williams Park; Photo: Emma Scudder
Handbuilding with ceramics feels like relief printing, but with clay and the possibility to create three-dimensional objects. I feel like there’s been a natural evolution for me to transform my imagery off of paper and into common household objects, like plates and vases. The vessels create a tactile experience for the user, and that hands-on quality is something I’ve always valued so much about the making process too.
My brother, my dad, and my grandfather are/were all woodworkers. They built the houses we lived in, and the imprints left from their hands literally surrounded us. I’ve only really realized in retrospect that I grew up in a family valuing craft and tactility, playfulness in art, and noticing our intersections with nature in these moments. I was back visiting my family last month and my grandmother gave me a 20 lb bag of dried terracotta clay that was once my grandfathers. Soon, I plan to rehydrate it and use it in my practice. I love knowing that the clay rest as long as it needs to, but can always come back to life.
You also love “cooking community meals for those around you”—can you say more about this and how this informs your creative work and supports your community building?
Photo: Emma Scudder
For me, one way that community is created and maintained is through food. Whether it’s sharing stories over a meal with others, the time and care put into cooking for someone else, or the gratefulness of feeling full—these moments center us in our gratitude for others.
This year, I’ve been grateful to accept funding to support an ongoing dinner series called Fish Picnic, which is a community-centered, free, public meal series that will happen outdoors once every few months. It is a public performance piece and an environmentally-situated meal for strangers and friends alike to meet, talk, and share stories. My hope is for Fish Picnic to be a thoughtful and creative meal that facilitates conversation and community, reflection about the foods we cook and eat, and appreciation for the environment around us.
My Scandinavian grandmother always makes lox for the holidays. Growing up in a multi-generational home, I was inspired by her love for cooking, which she often did without a recipe. She was confident in her ability to taste her way through the cooking experience, following instincts to flavor dishes. This meal series is centered around that idea, featuring menus that loosely flow with whatever is in season, and an eating experi- ence that is as visually exciting as it is taste-engaging.
“Sumac Harvest,” terracotta, slip, underglaze, 18” x 18” x 10”, 2022. Photo: Dana Clark
This series relates to my “money” work as a restaurant server and worker, and to my artistic practice as a printmaker, ceramicist and organizer. Both of these practices are inextricably intertwined within my creative process. Fish Picnic connects the threads of my experience as an industry worker, the food-themes explored in my images, and my role as a community organizer for Tender Table, transforming these themes into a shared meal.
Themes, such as processing and preserving, and maintenance work and labor, surface in my prints, ceramics, and meals.
Alongside Fish Picnic, I am an active co-organizer with Tender Table, a Maine-based group that celebrates Black and Brown community through storytelling and food. Tender Table facilitates in-person food moments that honor identities, traditions, joy and resilience, and also a light for me during Covid. Before I joined the team, I participated in a couple virtual food gatherings—we would get instant ramen mailed to us, or care packages with snacks and tea to share in virtual community together. These moments of togetherness provide spaces to process, laugh, learn and share.
What events or shows do you have upcoming (anything after July 2023)—where can readers find you?
I will have recurring Fish Picnic dinners throughout the remainder of 2023. The dates/times/locations are not finalized, but people can stay updated by following @fish.picnic on Instagram.
● I have a show opening at the Ticonic Gallery at Waterville Creates in Waterville on August 2nd. The opening reception is Friday, Aug. 4 from 4-7pm. I, along with the curator Diana Tuite, have invited three guest collaborators to join me for this show, Potluck. The collaborators are Heather Flor Cron, Alana Dao, and Raquel Miller.
● As part of the Potluck show, we’re hosting a community potluck on Saturday, September 9 in Castonguay Square in Waterville (next to Waterville Creates) from 4-7pm, with RSVP requested via Waterville Creates.
● I have prints for sale at Loquat in Portland, Saudade Pop-up in Portland, and Hinge Collaborative in Waterville. I also have an online shop with a few of my prints for sale.
● Tender Table is hosting a Night Market on Saturday, September 30 from 5-9pm. This is Tender Table’s 3rd Annual Food & Art Fair. (Raindate is Sunday, October 1).
