Today we’d like to introduce you to Jena Dost.
Jena, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been drawing and sculpting since as long as I can remember. I grew up in a tiny town in Tennessee and didn’t know until I was ready to start college that people could go to school to study art! So, that’s what I did. I attended the Atlanta College of Art and Queens College CUNY and received my BFA and MFA in Sculpture and Drawing.
All through undergraduate and graduate school, I collaborated with other artists to create a community of artists arts businesses. I don’t support the myth that artists should be starving artists and I try to create opportunities for myself and other artists so that we can make a living off of our art skills, knowledge and of course, our art!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a terribly difficult road balancing teaching with art-making, being a mother of three creative boys and figuring out how to be financially successful. It is hard to get everything done and to give everything the time it needs to flourish. I had to quit making art for about 10 years to raise my young sons. I never quit drawing and never stopped thinking about my art career. I started teaching my boys how to draw from observation and make sculptures with clay. They taught me so much about how to teach to young kids. At the time I was teaching Drawing and figurative sculpture and 3-d design at Oglethorpe University. It was wonderful but between raising my sons and a full load at the University I couldn’t fit in any studio time for myself.
Please tell us about Arts Beacon.
I started dreaming about creating a unique, creative arts space that I couldake my work in, a place I could share what I learned about teaching children and adults and mentor and inspire other women artists about 4 years ago.
Art Beacon came out of those musings. I get to teach art to adults and children, I have space to make art and I get to support and encourage women artists! The teaching is something I’m passionate about and it helps me be financially stable and continuously inspires me!
As an artist, I am probably most known for my small figurative sculpture series called “Love Portraits” a series of miniature clay sculptures of people who are huge influences to me. Also my small bust series “Busted” a small series of clay portraits of people I found in a funny little paper that had hundreds of photos of people who where arrested -“Busted”. I wanted to see if I could live and appreciate them as much as I did my “Love Portraits” I am currently working on a new Shadow drawing series that I am super excited about!
I also host a monthly critique group for women artists that help us all strengthen our art-making practice.
I’m kind of in awe that I decided that I was going to make art, teach art, foster a community of women artists and support myself financially and here I am living my dream job!
What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
Be bold, be fierce and be confident. You have to project those qualities to be seen.
Pricing:
- “Busted” busts $200
- Commissioned Portrait $800
- Classes range from $20 Group class to $75 private class
Contact Info:
- Address: Arts Beacon
1039 Grant Street SE A-34
Atlanta, GA 30315 - Website: www.jenadost.com
- Email: contact@artsbeacon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenadostart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artsbeacon
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/artsbeacon/
Image Credit:
Jena Dost
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