Jennifer O’Neill’s NoCal Adventure

For over a month this summer, Jennifer was way from our studio traveling in Northern California with her sister, Maureen. The primary purpose of her trip was to visit Jennifer’s artwork on display in the juried exhibition “A Progressive Ensemble” at fellow progressive art studio Art Explorers (Fort Bragg, CA).

At Mendicino Art Center, local news stopped by to check out the show. I was interviewed, and even though I don’t love to talk a lot, it felt okay. I also got the chance to visit Art Explorers in Fort Bragg, another Progressive Art Studio similar to Make Studio. There I met the local artists, including Amanda, who I bought a pair of earrings from. I remember her being very nice and got to see her working on creating some more earrings.

One thing that stood out to me [at Art Explorers] that was different than my experiences at Make Studio, was how all the artists shared their work at the end of the day. It felt interesting, but not necessarily something I would implement here. Another artist I met there was Annamarie, she was also very nice, and she was there with her older sister, like me. Annamarie’s work (as well as Nathan’s) is featured on the cover of the show booklet (super cool).

Another thing that stood out to me was how many artists liked to make work about Bigfoot. I have a feeling it’s a big trend there, considering how much artwork surrounding Bigfoot I saw. There was even a group of artists creating a Bigfoot film.

Outside of the show and the studio, my sister signed us up for Polynesian dance lessons. Although we didn’t end up attending all the sessions, it was a good experience overall. There were a lot of dances using arms, rather than it being all about the hips, which was surprising to me.

I worked on one of my cross-stitch projects, visited the Botanical Gardens, saw the sea lions, and even met some people who once lived in Mt. Vernon (small world!). I had a great time!