Jennifer Rugge, Earth Artist
Jennifer grew up in San Diego, one of five children who roamed up and down the beaches of California and Mexico. She had a modest life rich with travel and adventures uncommon to most children. Her family camped along vacant beaches in Baja, gathered food from the sea, and washed and swam among the waves. At night they kept company with the scorpions and by day the creatures of the tide pools. To rest from explorations Jennifer would often draw, paint, or build from sand and clays the things she discovered, observed or dreamed.
As an elementary school teacher, Jennifer incorporated art into several subjects. Drawing from her Art and linguistics background, Jennifer's thesis for grad school at George Mason University in Virginia, centered on multi-modal processes to include art as a way to engage children in different areas of the curriculum. This approach offered children ways to discover elements of reading, writing, and math integrated with Art and language that demonstrated to be successful and an endeavor which she continues today.
Jennifer has studied, exhibited, taught and sold art over the world from California to Virginia to Italy and Vienna, Austria. During a summer spent in Italy of 2007, she studied ancient Italian art techniques which included fresco painting, illuminated writing with its symbolism, and gold leaf applications. As part of these and other studies during a six year stay in Europe she visited the sacred churches of Italy, the Jugenstil of Vienna and the villages of such artists as Monet, Klimt, and Hundertwasser. Adding to her interests are the art in the caves of Europe to South Africa and the signs and pictographs of early languages. Recently she traveled to the outback of Australia to study the Rock and Cave Art of the Aborigines and their stories.
Jennifer's work is exhibited in two galleries, the Hat Ranch Gallery located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in the Bronze, Silver and Gold Gallery in Cambria, California. During the Covid 19 shut-down in 2020, she was accepted into the prestigious Manhattan Arts exhibition, "HerStory" online Gallery. She also received the "Judges' Award" for her painting, "Guardians of Resilience" in the Wild and Scenic January 2021 online exhibition of Art.
Currently, Jennifer's studio is located in Nevada City, California where she encourages the consciousness of a healthy environment not only for others, but for the intriguing creatures and features of the land and sea life communities. Her passion is to share the value of art through the collecting and mixing of natural minerals and clays into paints, slips and processes conducive to creating eco-friendly works and making earth-friendly decisions. She continues to study ancient roots of languages and signs, particularly those from the Paleolithic era and other ancient cultures. Altogether, these generate her creativity in her recent works, in both paintings and sculptures, connecting the present with the prehistoric past.
