Featured Artist

“Visions,” a solo exhibit featuring whimsical wood carvings by local artist Ani Jenkins, will open in The Kearcher-Monsell Gallery at Housatonic Valley Regional High School on Friday, December 13. 

This is the gallery’s first show that will feature exclusively three-dimensional pieces. 

About the artist 

Intrigued by the patterns, colors, and inclusion found naturally in wood, Ani Jenkins began her exploration of wood as an artistic medium in the 1990s. “I’m terrible in every other medium,” she laughed. Her mother had “high hopes” for Ani to be a painter, and while she gave it her all, it simply didn’t work out. She later took an inlay class – classes that teach students how to use wood veneer and inlay to add dimension and decoration to their woodworking projects – and immediately became enamored. “It was like I had been working with wood my entire life.” 

Ani spent eight years completing traditional inlay wood for furniture and instruments, but soon found herself yearning for more creative freedom and three-dimensionality. At the same time, she had been saving the extra pieces from her inlay work and found herself with a box of scrap wood. “I started building them into sculptures, and I quickly found that the pieces almost built themselves. It evolved pretty organically from that place.”

The solo exhibit at the Kearcher-Monsell Gallery includes a selection of Ani’s work from the past eight years. “It’s interesting to see how my work has refined itself throughout the years,” she said. “Some pieces are more traditional inlay, while other pieces really work with the wood as a whole. What captivates me most about wood is that I’m not starting with a blank canvas; wood has its own story to tell. It brings itself to life.”

Ani works primarily with burl wood, which is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. Burl wood is very hard to work with due to the grain being twisted and interlocked, which can cause it to chip or shatter unpredictably. However, it is highly sought-after in woodworking due to its beauty. 

“The character and the grain patterns are all over the place. It can look like flames or marble. It’s beautiful,” Ani explained. “Burl forms when a tree is traumatized in some way and starts to repair the wound, and there’s something very poetic about that to me. It’s this ugly thing on the outside of the tree, but it’s some of the most beautiful wood inside.”

Ani also described herself as a “cutter more than a carver,” meaning that her process consists more of slicing the wood apart and putting it back together. Some of her pieces display this concept of being taken apart more dramatically than others. 

One piece in the show – titled “The Cracks are how the Light gets in” – displays this aptly. Ani shared that she built this piece during a particularly difficult time in her life. 

“It’s amazing to me how people can be shattered and take all of the pieces and put themselves back together again, but never in the same way,” she said. “The outside form is sort of this stoic posture, and yet she’s absolutely cracked open. The picture of the woman inside holding her knees is meant to exemplify this idea of holding it together on the outside whilst on the inside you can be completely crumbling. This is one of those pieces that I don’t know if it will ever find a home. When you build from a piece of inspiration like that and you have it in your life, sometimes it can be haunting in a good way, and sometimes in a bad way.” 

Putting the show together and finding inspiration in the Northwest Corner

While many of her other exhibits are themed, Ani wanted this show to be diverse and show the full-range of her work. “I wanted to show a diverse group of things mostly because it’s in the school. My hope is that the students will be inspired. There’s a great woodworking department here, so I’m hoping to appeal to some of those students and let them know that there’s more to woodworking.” 

Prior to moving to the Northwest Corner, Ani lived in both Colorado and California. She worked closely with many community artist-based galleries up until pandemic, when unfortunately, many of those galleries had to close their doors. 

“The east coast is brand new to me. I feel a lot like I’m starting from scratch here,” Ani said. “I am now getting started with the art world here and seeing where I may or may not fit in.” 

Ani has also encountered significant differences in the art world on the east coast, as opposed to the west coast where she forged her career, with the most significant difference being that she hardly sees wood in galleries. 

“In California, most homes had some sort of wood art pieces. I haven’t seen that be the case so much, so that’s where I’m struggling a bit to find my place in the art world here,” she shared. “My work doesn’t exactly fit with traditional New England decor.” 

“There’s always that question of what becomes of art that doesn’t find a way into people’s homes or lives,” she continued. “That’s something that I think all artists live with. If I were a painter, I could just flat file my work and be done with it, but my work takes up space,” she mused. 

A constant work in progress 

While Ani’s work is incredibly time-consuming, she finds it therapeutic. “There’s no way to ever put a dollar amount on the time that goes in and artists never get paid by the hour,” she said. “I’m amazed by how all of the pieces end up finding homes. I have a huge box of little pieces at my house, and I can’t bring myself to get rid of any of them because they always seem to find their place in a larger piece.” 

She’s had some feedback from other galleries to “simplify” some of her work, so she’s begun dabbling in that. However, she noted that people seem to be more drawn to the busier pieces, she thinks, because they tell a greater story. 

Looking around at her work displayed in the Kearcher-Monsell Gallery, I asked Ani how and when she knows a piece is finished. Her response? “They’re never finished.” 

She pointed to a piece that she sold ten years ago and said that as soon as she saw it, she started thinking of things that she could do to alter the piece slightly. “I’ve promised to leave it alone,” she laughed. 

“Some pieces will sit on my workbench for years and then all of the sudden, I’ll see that this is what needs to be done or needs to happen,” she explained. “Even seeing my work hung on the walls right now, some of these pieces will certainly change before they’re displayed again.” 

There will be an opening reception at the Kearcher-Monsell Gallery on Friday, December 13 from 3-4:30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend. The exhibit will be open by appointment until January 7. Many of the pieces are for sale; you can contact Ani Jenkins directly to inquire at (719) 989-8479.