Jennifer Thomas Houdeshell, Fine Art and Illustration.
Artist’s Biography:
Jennifer Thomas Houdeshell, professional artist and illustrator, paints in a representational style, prefers that each piece of work tell a story, and nearly always incorporates people, especially children, into her narrative paintings. Her captivating, colorful, realistic style
invites the viewer to participate in the artwork's story. Currently, in addition to freelancing, Houdeshell, is enjoying illustrating picture books for children under contract to Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. in Saint Louis. Her most recently released picture books are:
THAT'S A LOT OF LOVE, written by Author Jennifer Bond Reed, published in Aug. 2011
Previously Houdeshell, who is a member of the Society of Children's Bookwriters and Illustrators, won a state wide competition for Florida illustrators and was hired to paint a preschool picture book for United Way as a part of an innovative grant. The book, the first she had illustrated, Peter and the Silent Siren was written by Author Gigi Morales David and was published in June 2005 with a release of 10,000 books. Houdeshell is busy now illustrating a new book for Guardian Angel which will be released in late summer of 2012.
Houdeshell, a Wright State University graduate, has exhibited her paintings in numerous juried exhibitions including the Orlando Museum of Art, the Museum of Florida Art, the African American Museum of Art-Florida (solo show), the Brevard Museum, the Gateway Center for the Arts, Casements, Walt Disney World Village, the Florida State Capitol Building, the Dayton Art Institute, Orlando’s City Factory Art Galleries, Casselberry’s Art House, Nashville’s Parthenon Galleries and Cheekwood Art Museum, Dayton’s High Street Gallery, Sanford’s First Street Gallery and the galleries of the Universities of Florida, Tennessee, Dayton and Mt. Saint Joseph of Cincinnati as well as outdoor shows such as the DeLand Fall Festival of the Arts and the Heathrow-Lake Mary Art Festival. In addition to her contract and commission work and exhibitions, Houdeshell continues to develop two series of paintings, one on child labor, the other on homelessness, themes about which she cares deeply. For two years she worked as the art therapist at a homeless shelter.
As a freelancer, some of her clients have been Universal Designs, the Florida United Methodist Church Conference, United Way of Northeast Florida, the Lawrence E. Whelan Begin Again Grief Center of Hospice, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Orange City United Methodist Church, Volusia County Baptist Church, First Congregational Church, Sanford's Arts and Ends, Sanford's Historic Welcome Center, Pine Ridge High School (3 murals), Volusia County Schools, WCEU-TV, and the News-Journal Corporation. She has also done many private sector commissions-portraits, Florida waterscapes, historic buildings, churches, chapels and homes as well as murals in private homes. A certified art educator, Houdeshell teaches an occasional workshop for adults and some summer art classes for children at the Museum of Florida Art. For 17 years she taught art full time in the public schools of Ohio and Florida.
Artist’s Statement:
The main body of my work is figurative with an emphasis upon child nurturing relationships, religious themes and social issues such as child labor, homelessness, and the environment.
I work in oils and alkyds due to the brilliance and depth of the hues and the textural qualities
of the paint. Often, I use a verdaccio underpainting with multilayered glazing, a technique that originated during the Renaissance, because it adds a richness of color that I find aesthetically pleasing. Over the years, I have been inspired by the work of Kathe Kollwitz, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Michelangelo, Vermeer, Irving Amen, and Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Susan Jeffers, Caroline Binch, and Sibyl Graber Gerig are my favorite illustrators, and Lewis Hine
and David Parker, much admired photographers.
I believe in commitments: to God, to my wonderful husband and daughters, and to my work which is my affirmation of life and the power of love. Art is a spiritual link with my Creator.
It is the lilting, haunting melody which leads me through my life both in times of sunshine
and of shadow. Sometimes it dances joyously, bright and free. Sometimes, it is more subtle, submerged beneath life’s demands, but like an underground river of pure water that sustains and refreshes. Art can calm me and lift me. It can make urgent demands and wear me to a frazzle or gift me with bursts of energy I didn’t know were possible. It occupies so many of my waking thoughts. It is hope, my inspiration, a holy thing, a gift from God. It is my life’s blood as surely as that which flows through my veins, and when the end of my earthly days comes, I can say through my art work and my students left behind that I believe in the precious uniqueness and creative potential of each individual and in the sanctity of life.
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