Painting, New to One of a Kind, Woman-Owned
Jennifer Hauser
Whimsical illustrations
Jennifer Hauser is a Chicago-based artist who distills whimsy from visions of rollicking bunnies in ink and colored pencil. She grew up in Northern Wisconsin on a dairy farm and credits the landscape and her interaction with the animals as the inspiration behind her work.
She has always loved drawing and making things, but Jennifer is a little bit of a late bloomer entering the art scene, she took a few detours along the way. When she graduated high school, she attended DePaul University in Chicago and graduated with a music degree in the performing arts. She stayed in Chicago and later attended the University of Illinois at Chicago graduate program and earned a Masters in Architecture degree.
Jennifer went on to become a licensed architect and worked in the architecture industry for 23 years, all the while still working on her art. So much so, her and her husband built a studio in the back yard lovingly dubbed “Studio J”. During her time in “Studio J”, Jennifer has completed a lot of fun and varied projects. She wrote and published a comic book, drew some portraits, dabbled in still life and built stained glass windows. Her style, medium and work has evolved over the years but what she is most known for these days are her ink and colored pencil drawings on primed masonite.
The latest evolution of in art occurred during the pandemic when we were all in quarantine. She had to turn “Studio J’ into her home office which meant she had to keep the art projects small and out of the way. She was in the middle of writing her second comic book and she felt a little deflated. Nothing seemed quite that funny at that moment and she felt she just couldn’t continue with her book. She packed it up and put it on the shelf to wait until she felt like she could laugh again. She cleaned her studio really good and then thought, now what?
The “what” was an old photo she took on a road trip of an interesting grouping of trees. She began to draw the trees over and over. It was like a spark insider her lit up. She started drawing postcards of her weird little trees for her friends and family. Pretty soon she had quite the collection, then, she published a coloring book with her tree drawings. The tree drawings took on a whole new life of their own. Jennifer would add little bunnies and challenge herself with more complex drawings, larger drawings, more, details. The bunnies started having activities. One drawing sparked an idea for the next drawing, drawing begets drawing. And there you have it, Jennifer metamorphosed into an artist.
Jennifer’s intricately detailed drawings full of bold colors are reminiscent of her stained glass windows. The technical pens she discovered in architecture school are relics of a past era in hand drafting, but she prefers them for their line quality and for the methodical technique required when using them. Her use of masonite as a substrate points to her habits as an architect, some in the biz use the term “truth of materials”. It’s an architect thing, don’t worry about it, just remember architects like to build with precision and use great materials that will last forever. As for her subject matter, you know the trees, flower and bunnies? Those are the conjurings from her childhood when she imagined tiny, secret worlds full of imaginary friends.
She has always loved drawing and making things, but Jennifer is a little bit of a late bloomer entering the art scene, she took a few detours along the way. When she graduated high school, she attended DePaul University in Chicago and graduated with a music degree in the performing arts. She stayed in Chicago and later attended the University of Illinois at Chicago graduate program and earned a Masters in Architecture degree.
Jennifer went on to become a licensed architect and worked in the architecture industry for 23 years, all the while still working on her art. So much so, her and her husband built a studio in the back yard lovingly dubbed “Studio J”. During her time in “Studio J”, Jennifer has completed a lot of fun and varied projects. She wrote and published a comic book, drew some portraits, dabbled in still life and built stained glass windows. Her style, medium and work has evolved over the years but what she is most known for these days are her ink and colored pencil drawings on primed masonite.
The latest evolution of in art occurred during the pandemic when we were all in quarantine. She had to turn “Studio J’ into her home office which meant she had to keep the art projects small and out of the way. She was in the middle of writing her second comic book and she felt a little deflated. Nothing seemed quite that funny at that moment and she felt she just couldn’t continue with her book. She packed it up and put it on the shelf to wait until she felt like she could laugh again. She cleaned her studio really good and then thought, now what?
The “what” was an old photo she took on a road trip of an interesting grouping of trees. She began to draw the trees over and over. It was like a spark insider her lit up. She started drawing postcards of her weird little trees for her friends and family. Pretty soon she had quite the collection, then, she published a coloring book with her tree drawings. The tree drawings took on a whole new life of their own. Jennifer would add little bunnies and challenge herself with more complex drawings, larger drawings, more, details. The bunnies started having activities. One drawing sparked an idea for the next drawing, drawing begets drawing. And there you have it, Jennifer metamorphosed into an artist.
Jennifer’s intricately detailed drawings full of bold colors are reminiscent of her stained glass windows. The technical pens she discovered in architecture school are relics of a past era in hand drafting, but she prefers them for their line quality and for the methodical technique required when using them. Her use of masonite as a substrate points to her habits as an architect, some in the biz use the term “truth of materials”. It’s an architect thing, don’t worry about it, just remember architects like to build with precision and use great materials that will last forever. As for her subject matter, you know the trees, flower and bunnies? Those are the conjurings from her childhood when she imagined tiny, secret worlds full of imaginary friends.
