Author: Jenni Ward

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remember that public art project??

Nearly 5 years in the making from application to installation, this project is finally coming to a close!

A Feast of Flowers, is going to be installed in the coming days at the entrance to the newest section of the Coastal Rail Trail at the intersection of Bay and California streets on the westside of Santa Cruz. These sculptures have been in my Santa Cruz studio awaiting transplanting for over a year and it’s finally going to happen. I’ll be posting photos as things develop but as of right now, the foundations are poured, the anchor bolts are going in soon and after testing the concrete for strength, we will start transporting the sculptures to the site to install. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes as planned!

If you want to read about the whole journey of making these pieces, click here!

About the project: A Feast of Flowers will be six ceramic and steel sculptures inspired by the umbel flower structure of fennel plants. Placed staggered along the sides of the trail and silhouetted against the sky, the installation will create a sense of whimsy and wonder for the thousands of patrons who use the trail as well as bring an awareness to our connection with nature. 

My inspiration for this particular installation comes from my exploration of the natural world, and my curiosity about identifying plants, especially the edible ones. As an amateur forager, every hike in the woods has become like a trip to the grocery store for me. Fennels are one of the most recognized edibles that grow in California, available for the taking, yet there is a tendency to not trust the wild plants. This disconnect we humans have with nature, the loss of knowledge about native plants and how that relates to the global issue of food insecurity are all concepts explored with this project. 

It is also my hope that whimsical oversized flowers will create a fun and dramatic impact for the area, will draw locals and tourists alike outside to connect with nature, learn about local plants and of course take a moment to stop and smell the flowers. 

This project is sponsored by:

A Feast of Flowers | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture


mil gracias!!

Mil gracias to everyone who came out to celebrate the opening of Sticks + Stones | Palos + Piedras at Earth Art Studio last Saturday! Over 100 visitors walked through the desert exploring the sculptures and a special thank you to all of you who purchased art!

✨And to all the artists- you are truly amazing!! ✨

Missed the event? We have a line up of pop-up events coming up over the next few weeks, or make an appointment to come and get a curator tour of the show!

let there be light…and gates

Thrilled that we finally got our ceramic sconce lights up on the patio wall of the studio and they look pretty cool. It’s fun to take a traditional style light form and apply my own hole patterns to it. Also note the amazing ceramic oar sculpture by Susana Arias that seems right at home on our studio patio. And the crowning achievement of the month is finishing up our studio gate!

This project has been a long time coming and we’re excited that it’s going to be ready for the opening reception of our exhibit. Nate, my talented husband designed and fabricated all of the metal framework and hardware for the gate while I made and installed all of the ceramic parts. The shadows cast by the pieces and cables are such a cool element, that we gotta say, we’re pretty proud of this collaboration!

trinket necklaces are back in stock

Trinket Necklace on Display | shop | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

The online shop now has 9 trinket necklaces in stock! These wearable sculptures are a combination of forged steel parts by sculptor Jamie Abbott and porcelain elements by Jenni Ward, strung on either ball chain or leather cord. They jingle as you move and make a bold statement with any outfit.

SHOP NOW

install week is coming!

The installation of Sticks + Stones | Palos y Piedras is coming up soon and a few works have started to find their way into the studio and sculpture garden. I’ve been cleaning up new sections of the sculpture trail and starting to rearrange the studio to make room for the work of 9 talented artists. I love that we will have sculpture in a variety of materials from plaster, to ceramic to bronze as well as paintings, installations and printmaking – it should be a very cool show. Details about the show here!

Here’s a few teaser bits of what is to come…

About the show:

What is the desert? Just sticks and stones? Local artists showcase what inspires them about living in the desert through sculptures, paintings, installations and more. Join us and walk the desert along our sculpture trail to find where art & nature meet.

Participating Artists:

Christa Assad, Steve Jacobi, Abel Martinez, Uli Martinez, Rudy Mendoza, Paolo Melandri, Natalia Szalc, Jenni Ward + Kevin Wickham

the gate is up!

For those of you that have been following along on the months long journey of making our main studio gate, I’m excited to share that the gate is up and in place! Nate did a fabulous job fabricating and now I’m starting to add on my art elements to it. Over the course of a full day, I got the majority of the parts installed but the rest of the parts are loaded in the kiln for their final glaze firing. So it will be finished up as soon as those come out of the kiln this weekend. Then we will dismantle the sticks and wire temporary fence we’ve had up for close to a year now! Things take a while to come to fruition around here – a pace that I’m slowly getting used to, and it seems to make the end results even sweeter when they finally do happen!

The ceramic work on the gate panels are from my Bone Series and are typically spaced out more with more negative space in both the ceramic elements and the steel cables that connect them. In this application, I needed the pieces and cables to be densely packed to keep my dogs from jumping through the fence. That’s given me the opportunity to explore a new way of working with a very old series. They become like a taut screen that is solid and obviously not solid at the same time. Of course these installations are all about the shadows, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they change throughout the day.

sculpture garden tour

If you missed it, here’s another chance to take a walk through the sculpture garden!

Want to visit in person? Join us at our next Event or Contact us to book an appointment!

new studio gate is almost ready!

Nate has been welding away on the new studio gate and it’s almost ready to install. He designed it so the bottom has perforated metal panels and the top openings are where I’ll install my art from my Bone Series. He figured out a way of making the loops for me to attach my art to by cutting chain links in half and welding them along the framing. Of course he had to make a little jig to hold each of these loops in place when welding them, so that’s just one more step in the process. Now he’s working on the track for it to roll in, as well as priming and painting all the metal. The priming currently makes it look the color of the golden gate bridge but promise you, we won’t be leaving it that color.

I’ve glazed up a bunch of pieces and will be ready to install them once the gate is in place. I think the shadows the pieces will cast will look great in place – can’t wait to see this collaboration finished up!