Meet Jennifer Stockman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Stockman.  

Jennifer, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in a creative family. My Mother was a great cake decorator, fiber artist, and painter. My Father was a great cartoon artist and painter as well as a writer. So being artistic and creative was always in my grasp, and I loved it! I have been creating and selling art for over 30 years now and am moving into the full-time arena to enjoy my passion even more because life is short, and we need to do what we love! 

I have always had a vivid imagination and would make pictures from cloud formations or even mud puddles in the backyard. I have tried many forms of art and enjoy painting, metalwork, silversmith work, crochet, knitting, quilting, and of course, GLASS! When in college for Graphic Design, I tried a variety of art forms through my courses and have used some of the techniques learned along the way in just about all of my artistic endeavors. 

Glass has always fascinated me, and I knew that someday I would try the medium. The delay was due to the cost and accessibility to the tools needed to create the glass. In 2016, while on medical leave in treatment for breast cancer, I finally made the leap and took some classes in lampwork and taught myself fused and stained glass through trial and error, online courses, books, other glass artists, and a passion to try. 

Painting is my other passion, and when I found I could paint with enamel on glass or use glass frit and powder to create a painting, there was no doubt I had found my medium and passion for artistic expression 

Glass is an amazing and frustrating medium! Fused glass can decide it wants to be a vase even when you think it should be a bowl….and it never hesitates to let you know! Stained glass has a mind of its own too sometimes. Planning the solder lines is not just for decorative expression but also for strength and stability. Making sure you have your design right saves on the “tear factor” when you stand it up or hang it up for the test! A lot of planning and technique goes into each piece whether it is fused glass or stained glass. 

You can do so much with it and make it into almost any shape. But it is not a fast process or inexpensive passion, and the glass will not let you rush the creation.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Getting to the place I am at now, a full-time artist, has not been an easy road. Life has a way of taking you down many detours. Confidence in yourself also has a way of making things a challenge. All of it is a learning process, and I think I needed to go through it all to be happy, confident, and open to the entire process now. I think the final tipping point was being my parents’ caregiver for the past 8 years and working a demanding job. It left little time to create art, and my soul suffered. I left the job in my parents last year on earth to care for them full-time. I would not trade that for anything. It was the hardest thing I had to do, but I loved them both very much. They always said they were going together, and they did, 16 days apart! My mother passed first, and my father made me promise to “Just do your art! You love it, people love to buy it, and life is too short to not do what you love!” He told me God gave me all the talents to do a variety of art to ensure I was an artist in this life! So, I am! 

The world is a huge marketplace, and I love that some of my art is all over the world! I have sold pieces to people in the US in almost every state, a commission went to Singapore, I have had sales in the UK, and even one went to Australia! I do love meeting the buyers, so I still occasionally will do a local show or two. But I find I can interact with my customer online as well.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am currently a glass artist working with fused glass (Kiln work) and stained glass (lead and solder). The process is very time-consuming but, to me, extremely satisfying. A fused piece can take up to a full week or more to create from the design, cutting the glass, multiple fuse fires in the kiln to the final cold working and clean up. Stained glass is just as labor intensive with designing the pattern, cutting the glass (it is like a giant puzzle), grinding to be sure of an accurate fit to the pattern, cleaning the grind, then foiling or leading the piece, soldering, cementing (if using lead came) and the final clean and polish. Both can take weeks to complete depending upon the complexity and size. And if the glass wants to cooperate!

What were you like growing up?
As a kid, I was kind of a loner. I had friends, but I was also perfectly content to lay in the front yard and stare at the clouds to find shapes and see nature fly by. I was also pretty much a tomboy, so I would be in trees or in a creek exploring all the time. Nature and animals have always been my inspiration. Many times, if I could not be found, I would be in the dog house (literally) hanging out with my dogs, Ralph and Spot. I have been an outside person most of my life. Hiking with my camera has always been a great pastime and my “church,” per se. Nature and God are always a good combination. 

When I got older, my love of creating art grew. I tried anything and everything that interested me. I found out I love music, but my left and right hand don’t cooperate well to make it! Piano and guitar taught me that! So, I stuck to the mediums I enjoyed and felt I could excel with. The interesting part about my hands though, is I paint with both hands…so it’s not that I can’t use them equally, but they don’t like to work at the same time, ha ha ha. 

I suppose I am still kind of a loan ranger, as I traveled a lot for my career alone all over the world. I have lived in many states where I knew no one and learned to find friends and acquaintances, but I always had my art as my best friend. I think growing up in a military family made it easier to make friends and move around a lot. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jenelart.com
• Instagram: @jenelart
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/JenelArt
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferstockman/
• Twitter: @jenelart
• Youtube: @jenelart1270

Image Credits
Jennifer Stockman