Jennifer asile
Bio
Jennifer Basile was born in Manhasset, New York and now resides in Miami, Florida. She holds a BFA, Art Studio from the University of Miami and received her MFA in Printmaking from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She is a Professor of studio art at Miami Dade College. She has received numerous exhibitions and residencies across the country, such as Vermont Studio Center, Kala Art Institute, and the Jentel Foundation.
Jennifer’s work explores our surrounding landscapes. Through her journeys and hikes, she learns about the locations and collects her subject matter. She creates immersive relief and woodblock printmaking work that envelops viewers, providing a sense of escape to nature and beauty, inspiring the audience to preserve our ever-changing environment before it gets destroyed permanently.
Statement
“Coot Bay Pond” is one of the many places I frequently visit at Everglades National Park.
Park your car, grab some snacks, grab your binoculars, and launch your kayak to explore Florida’s great eco system. The Ecology of ones living area has great importance to me and I am passionate about learning it and protecting it. It is a constant push to go out and visit these places and document my experience as it is continuously changing.
The landscape of the Florida everglades is remarkable and I spend a lot of time taking photos, making sketches, and taking notes of things I come across on my visits. This ballpoint pen dra- wing, inevitably a print in the future, reflects the moment I visited Coot Bay Pond with a friend after riding Rowdy Bend trail and Snake Bite trail on my mountain bike. This drawing depicts how I was captivated by the natural beauty of the pond and the way light was flickering through the mangroves. I am passionate about these special areas specific to south Florida and want to share them with you.
I became motivated to study birds after a nature trip I took to Everglades city. On a visit to the Cork Screw Sanctuary and a private boat trip though the 10,000 Islands, both naturalists on my tours, emphasized how fewer birds are left around in the landscape compared to 20 -50 years ago. Basically, more people, less birds.
The birds in this series of prints, each one different, are a direct reference to my recent public
art work “Disappearing Treasures” at the Brickell Metro-Rail Station which features the very same birds that are in your prints. Each print has either an etched silhouette or cut out silhouette of
a bird. The cut-out silhouettes have the “negative space” (bird), flying around inside your packet. This is purposefully done to mimic their disappearance in our landscape. The silhouettes
are of roseate spoonbills, wood storks, and roseate terns because they are on the Florida endangered species.
