Jenny Leslie Personal statement

Jenny is studying for a BA in textiles and embroidery with Opus school of Textile Art affiliated to Middlesex University. She is studying part time and is in her fourth year. The current project based on Wormley Woods and Woodgreen is part of her course work. This module will continue until the end of May. Jenny plans to continue working with the themes and ideas that arise of the project.

Jenny has experience in working with nature as a horticulturalist and her passion for nature informs a lot of her work. She is interested in using this expertise along side another area of professional interest, psychology. Through projects that involve research with people, collecting images, poems and ideas from the community Jenny feels art projects can act as catalysts to engender interest. Working in this way can also be highly valuable when it is used in projects connected with nature and survival of the planet. Listening to people’s ideas can encourage a much greater sense of awareness and understanding.

Jenny’s principle techniques are dyeing and printing. What excites her about these mediums is the balance between control through the procedure and the spontaneity, which is out of control. Jenny likes to use layers and translucency to encourage a sense of entering into the textile work.

Jenny often uses quilts as a form for her work. Functionally quilts have been part of mankinds life for thousands of years, they have been intimately concerned with life and death and so they are potent symbols. Quilts were a protection for sleeping bodies, this suggests a metaphor that could be used for the world; a quilt for the world.