Jennifer McBrien
Baltimore, MD
Jennifer McBrien is a Baltimore textile artist who uses her sewing machine as a drawing tool to honor her fragile subjects
MessageBaltimore artist, Jennifer McBrien, began her artistic career as a painter, exhibiting her work throughout the East Coast from the mid 80’s to mid 2000’s. As a painter, she received two Baltimore City Arts Grants (1991, 2005) and a Maryland State Individual Artist Award in painting in 2005. Needing a change in her focus and her medium, McBrien began working in fibers around 2005. Her experimentation has lead her to using her sewing machine as her drawing and painting tool to interpret her ink drawings of birds, figures and plant life. After a two week embroidery class at Penland School of Craft, she started to add hand embroidery to her narrative works. Her art has been included in art exhibits: “Birdland and Anthropocene” at the Peale Art Center in Baltimore, and “Stitch” at Community Arts in Phoenixville, PA , both in 2017; “Extravagant Visions, Extraordinary Imaginings” at Towson University in 2018, and “ ..and your Bird can Sing” at the Fleckinson Gallery in Baltimore in 2019. McBrien has been part of a number of Fine Craft Fairs throughout the Northeast that include the American Craft Council Fine Craft fair in Baltimore, PA Guild Craft Guild at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, PA, The Academy Art Museum Craft Show in Easton, MD, Bethesda Row Arts Festival, Bethesda, MD, and The Visual Art Center of Richmond's Craft + Design in Richmond VA. She won Best in Show at the 2021 Bethesda Row Arts Festival.
Statement
My stitches tell a narrative about the fragility of our world using birds, plants and figures as subjects. I choose a fragile medium of embroidery to emphasize its delicateness, as well as a medium in which the connection of hand and material are constant. Whether I’m freehand machine or hand stitching, my hands are guiding and manipulating thread and fabric. My process begins with my ink drawings from observation or photographic references. I translate the ink with the stitched line. Color and form is added with overlaying threads, fabric or felt. I get very excited about finding vintage and up-cycled fabrics that have scenes that my subjects can interact with to tell their story. I am drawn to overlay and transparency leading me to experiment with a variety of fabrics from felt to organza.
Jennifer McBrien/ jennyjen42
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