Great Artist Highlight: Jennie C. Jones

In a new blog series I am calling "Great Artist Highlight," I will be highlighting some of my all-time favorite and great, exciting artists.

Let's start with Jennie C. Jones because great living artists are so exciting!

(Not to mention she has the name of a great old show I used to watch and is a fellow Ohio native!)

I stumbled across Jones' work the day after I had the idea to begin a technique I refer to as "canvas-mounting."

As if on cue, the Universe introduced me to Jones' work the very next day where she plays with three-dimensional canvases and does so with such ease and perfection.

"Sustained Black with Broken Time and Undertone," 2011.

Her work was completely novel and new to my eyes. Her use of canvas to ascribe depth to a piece, revolutionary.

For all the museums I'd ever been in, I've never seen anything like her work before.

It was different, modern and- to my eyes- exquisitely perfect.

Her work was striking, but not overbearing. Subtle, but powerful. Balanced, but perfectly asymetrical.

Not to mention, Jones' incorporation of music into her work struck a chord with me, on a personal level.

Her jazz-inspired drawings are minimal, but impactful, created with a focus and clarity that resonates through them. They transport me into her world and the musical notes which she sought to express.

As an artist out of Brooklyn, Jones' work is heavily influenced by jazz in particular, and while I'm, admittedly, not even remotely well-versed in sound art, she works in that medium as well.

Jones' drawing depict musical scores and notes

I don't know as much about Jennie C. Jones as I do other great artists. After all, I came across her work relatively recently compared to other artists whom I have admired for years and even decades.

I've been a fan of Dali, Warhol and Picasso since I was child. Of course I am going to know more about them.

What I love most about Jones' work are all of the ways, small and large, in which she conveys her messages and the continuity of her style.

You look at a piece of hers, and you can tell that it is hers.

That's part of what makes a great artist great.

I look at a Picasso, and I know it's a Picasso.

I look at at a Van Gogh, and I know that it is a Van Gogh.

I look at a Jones, and I can guess that it's a Jones. (Again, the possible margin for error is my own, as I haven't been obsessed with her work for long enough.)

Jennie C. Jones contributes to the world stunning artwork from a novel perspective.

If you haven't checked out her artwork before, do so now! You'd be doing yourself a serious favor.

TRISHA WILES