Meet the Designer: Jennifer Carrasco (aka Jenoiserie)

Right now it’s mostly paint, canvas, brushes and paper.  When I returned to the States, I worked with watercolors and acrylics, and did ten years of NEA artists-in-residence in the schools in 5 different states, painting and teaching in those mediums.  Also a two month stint in Japan and Korea doing the same with Dept. of Defense schools.

I am in another world.  I check out audio books from the library, listen to those voices speaking across space and time, crank up the heat (Seattle is wet and cold for a good part of the year), and surround myself with imaginary plants and animals. I still do personal paintings…they often inform my decorative work. Nature and water seem to be a constant theme.

Everything.  I LOVE research and range the internet and my personal library for images and historical styles.  Right now I am painting a 30’ x 7.5 foot mural for a young East Indian American family who want imagery from India culture. The overall concept is “nature is huge, the world of people is small.” Tigers, leopards and elephants and luscious, stylized tropical plants and trees. My clients just welcomed the birth of two adorable baby girls, and I told their parents I can imagine the girls, when they are older, on their stomachs in front of some part of the mural telling each other stories about the characters and animals in the mural.  There are always opportunities for stories in my work….a definite narrative element.