Jennifer Crenshaw

Focused on creating innovative embroidery sans a substrate to allow the new material to become sculptural. Also researching sustainability focused on discarded textiles samples to create objects of art. As with many Textile Artist, one’s interest in textiles is generational. In Jennifer Crenshaw’s case, her maternal grandmother crocheted and sewed, her mother sews, knits and was a ceramist. Her father used his creative skills in woodworking and also in ceramics. So it was only natural for her to embrace painting. Crenshaw graduated from UGA in 1986 with a B.B.A, Marketing but used my elective classes to take studio art classes. Her art professors asked me why she was not pursuing an art degree. Her only answer was “I want to travel around the world and I want to find a company to pay me to do so”. She entered the world of corporate incentive travel with a company based in St. Louis, MO. For 12 years of her life, it was a dream come true traveling to private islands in Fiji, camps in Africa and riding elephants to palaces in India. All of these experiences were amazing but she found herself more intrigued with the textiles of each of these countries. The materials, processes, motifs and colors are inspired by the culture and the uniqueness of the textiles influenced by the natural surrounding. She was captivated and convinced that she wanted to study the history of textiles and further her skills in the multiple processes that textile design provides. She had found her passion.

She received her M.F.A from Rhode Island School of Design, Textile Design. She was told that working on one’s thesis project is the most grueling task of graduate studies. But instead, she found that she woke up everyday and would think to herself “today, I get to design and create”. She has never regretted her decision to explore textile design and is grateful that it is who she is…a Textile Artist/Designer who gets to share her passion with others.