ABOUT JENNIFER SPENCER
Jennifer Spencer is a mid-career San Diego painter/photographer whose work has been exhibited both in the United States and in Europe. Jennifer produces images, using alternative photographic and digital processes, to create painterly works, expressing how she feels about the fragility of our environment….from desert plant life to devastated landscapes in Southern California. She has always been on a search for the different ways of holding onto light throughout her career….a trip from painting to analog to digital.
Jennifer’s career began as a painter back East in Massachusetts. After moving to California in the mid 1970’s, her painting began to change. Jennifer’s curiosity and creative interests blossomed after attending Grossmont Community College where she acquired an Associate Degree in Digital Art Media and Fine Art Photography in 2008.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a painter and digital photographer who has been using alternative photographic processes to create painterly images expressing how I feel about my environment and plant life.
My process is meditative, allowing me to portray my environment and plant life as beautiful, with delicate and ephemeral images, capturing the interest of the viewer’s sensitivity to the beauty of nature and concern for our environment.
The current body of work has been built upon the earlier acrylic and watercolor paintings that focused on the environment.
EDUCATION AND BACKGROUND
Associate Degree, Digital Art Media, Grossmont Community College, El Cajon, CA
Associate Degree in Fine Art Photography, Grossmont Community College, El Cajon, CA
SOLO EXHIBITION
2019 The Artist Portrait Project Exhibition, San Diego Central Library Gallery, San Diego, CA
2018 Published book: THE ARTIST PORTRAIT PROJECT: A Photographic Memoir of Portrait Sessions with 50 San Diego Artists, 2018
PUBLICATIONS
2025 “Feminist art coalition tackles censorship in exhibit…In the Land of”, Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego, CA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
2025 In the Land of…Feminist Image Group, F.I.G., San Diego Central Library, San Diego, CA
2023 Climate Reckoning, Hyde Gallery Grossmont Community College, El Cajon, CA
2023 Teravarna, Golden Duck Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2021 Sowing Seeds of Universal Language, San Diego Mesa Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
2021 Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ
2012 IGPOTY Exhibition, Kew Gardens, London, UK, Award
2012 Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ
2011 “The Soul of Light” Invitational Front Porch Gallery, Carlsbad, CA
2011 Hand+Eye: An International Competition of Handcrafted Photography, Through the Lens Gallery, Durham, NC
2010 IGPOTY (International Garden Photographer of the Year), KEW Gardens, London, England
2010 SOHO PHOTO, Annual Alternative Processes Competition, New York, New York
2010 Platinum Print Festival, Lightbox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, Oregon
2010 Worldwide Photography Awards, Julia Margaret Cameron, Honorable Mention (jurors: Carol McCusker, Kim Weston)
2010 “f45 Group/Grossmont College”, New Americans Museum, Liberty Station, San Diego, CA
2009 “Movers&Shakers”, Art Expressions Gallery, Invitational, San Diego, CA
2009 Two Nations-Two Visions: The Photography of Julio Rodriguez Ramos and Jennifer Spencer, Mandell Weiss Gallery @ Dance Place San Diego, CA
2009 “Dancing to Abstraction”, Mandell Weiss Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Dance Place, NTC Promenade, San Diego, CA,
2009 “Invitational”, Hyde Gallery, Grossmont Community College, El Cajon, CA
2006 Grossmont Hyde Gallery, Photo Club Award, Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA
2005 Grossmont Hyde Gallery, House and Art Council awards, Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA