jessica bohné

Burlap Roses

2011-03-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

After seeing Katie's burlap roses (seen here) I've been wanting to make some myself. Recently my mom and I had the perfect opportunity. My parents' church asked for volunteers to decorate a spring time themed wreath. Parishioners could then purchase the wreaths, proceeds benefiting the church. During the Christmas season my mom and I decorated a small artificial tree. Instead of traditional Christmas colors we used bronze and gold leaves and ribbon, blue and green acorns with brown tops, and other fillers of those colors. I liked using the untraditional colors but liked that it still felt very seasonal. Sadly I didn't think to take a picture!

Baby paintings

2011-03-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Last summer my friends Bryan and Janette welcomed their third boy, baby Caleb. I wanted to give them a special gift and decided to try my hand at creating a baby name painting. I was a little hesitant--I didn't want it too look to cheesy or like something manufactured. I was very happy with how it turned out! Janette asked me to make one for her friend's baby girl Kennedy this fall. I have a couple friends due in the spring, summer, and fall and hope to create paintings for them as well.

Sweet Paul

2011-03-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

My friend Liz sent me a link to this fantastic magazine-Sweet Paul Magazine. From what I've gathered Sweet Paul is an online magazine and you can flip through digital copies online. Their spring 2011 issue is all about kids! The recipes look delicious, the crafts are adorable, and the ideas are so cute. Check it out!

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato JOE!

2011-02-26T16:23:00.000-08:00

Last year while poring through the childrens area of our local book store (one of my favorite things to do) I stumbled upon "Potato Joe" by Keith Baker. He very quickly became one of my all time favorite children's book authors and illustrators. Both his illustrations and prose are very whimsical. My preschool children fell in love with "Potato Joe" as quickly as I did!

This fall I had the opportunity to attend the NAEYC Conference (National Association for the Education of Young Children) in Anaheim, CA. And to my delight, I found out that Keith Baker was going to present and hold a book signing! He was just as wonderful as I had imagined and I loved hearing him discuss the numerous school visits he has done and the "fan mail" he receives from children. Of course I had to have him autograph my copies of "Potato Joe" and "LMNOPeas."
My copy of "Potato Joe" was really quite worn as I had read it with my children many, many times. We even planted potatoes last spring and harvested them this fall to make vegetable soup. If you have never checked out one of Baker's books I highly recommend it!

Doesn't he look SO excited to be meeting me?! I told him about how much my children liked the book-but I'm sure everyone tells him that-and how we planted potatoes.

New Studio?

2011-02-26T16:02:00.000-08:00

I am in need of a new studio space and a friend (Katie Held Rigney) suggested us looking into renting space at a local gallery. While looking at it I remembered my mom had a friend who rented there and so I stumbled across her work. If you know me, you know my obsession with bones and so naturally I really like the graphite drawings in Kate Kern's "Soul Go Forth" series.

Inspiration in old images

2011-02-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

I've been looking through old images on my external hard drive and found quite a few that really draw me in. Here are a few from my trip to Egypt in 2007:

The textures and colors in these images are just beautiful. I was always timid when it came to including bright(er) colors in my works and really worked to lessen this fear when I was in grad school. Slowly but surely I began to be less afraid of color and actually embraced it!

Artworks 2009

2011-02-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

I realized I never posted pictures from the Artworks Mural I worked on in 2009.

The Northside Raymond ThunderSky Legacy Mural is located in Northside (a Cincinnati neighborhood) on the side of Visionaries and Voices, a nonprofit studio for artists with disabilities. The mural is in memory and honor of Raymond Thundersky. Raymond used to travel by foot and by bus to various construction sites in Cincinnati and draw what he saw. He would dress in construction overalls, a clown collar, and hard hat, carrying his art supplies in a toolbox.

A local MRDD case worker was assigned to visit Raymond. After several visits, Raymond shared some of his 1,000s of sketches with Bill. Bill just happened to be an artist himself. He displayed Raymond's artwork during his next art opening downtown paving the way for Raymond's success. Inspired by Raymond, Bill created Visionaries and Voices.

This mural was designed by a young artist named Antonio Adams. Antonio was only in high school when he met Raymond and Bill but formed a close friendship with them. Antonio was among the four founding artists of V+V along with Bill. Antonio has a successful art career, showing his work all over the country.

Antonio designed the mural in memory of Raymond using a combination of his own and Raymond's artistic styles.

The mural was created with the help of Antonio, two teaching artists (myself included), a project manager (Cedric Michael Cox), and 12 local teenagers (ages 15-19) as a part of ArtWorks, MuralWorks. The mural happened to be completed on the fifth year anniversary of Raymond's death.

New Approach

2011-02-15T18:59:00.001-08:00

With the resolution to post more frequently I've also decided to change the format. If I'm making changes, why not?! Previously, I limited myself to images of my artwork and artwork by my students. I would like to transform the blog to reflect more of my creative process--all things that inspire and encourage me to think creatively. I will start with the book I am reading: "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. It has become quite popular lately. Its featured at the Cincinnati Public Library this month and I just heard an interview with Rubin on NPR last night. Its been on my list to read the past several months and I finally got around to requesting it from the library. I'm only about a third of the way through, but I am absolutely loving it. Rubin approached obtaining happiness in a way that was eye-opening and definitely causes me to reflect on my own happiness and a great urge to create my own happiness project. Check out her Happiness Project blog that she created while in the midst of her project.

Its been far too long....

2011-02-15T18:34:00.001-08:00

I'm slightly embarrassed at how long of a break I've taken from posting anything. I recently had a very successful opening at Dutch's Wine and Bottle Shop. I had a great turn out and actually sold quite a few pieces. Here is a picture next to an old, dear painting I made in college. This piece caused me a great bit of distress but I am happy to say it is sold! I will post other images from the show soon, and hopefully my next post won't take me so long.

2009-04-02T21:56:00.001-07:00

I apologize for the quality of the pictures--they're definitely not the best. Hopefully I will reshoot them soon.

Winter 2009

2009-04-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

Creating our own "Ugly Dolls"

2009-03-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

The 6-9 year olds created their own dolls inspired by Ugly Dolls (http://www.uglydolls.com/). They sketched their own doll patterns, traced them on felt, sewed them together, and added facial features. I was so impressed by how well they did. They struggled a bit at first, but eventually really got the hang of the sewing. They also wrote personality descriptions for their dolls. They were so proud of them!

(Fun Fact: An ugly doll made an appearance in the finale of "ER"!)

Student Teaching: Pleasant Ridge Montessori

2009-02-16T17:13:00.000-08:00

My teaching license will be for preK-12. In order to gain experience with all ages I have worked with preschool students and have done student teaching at both an elementary and high school. I am in the midst of completing my high school student teaching but thought I would post some of the work from my elementary students.

The following work was completed by students at Pleasant Ridge Montessori, a Cincinnati Public School.

Special Needs students created portraits on collage/sticky board in which they focused on manipulating the string, the characteristics of creating a self portrait and having to make compositional decisions.

9-12 group, after studying Bali Shadow Puppets, created and decorated their own using the characteristics of the puppets studied.

Student Teaching

2009-02-16T16:41:00.000-08:00

6-9 group studied architecture and transformed milk cartons into buildings or created clay facades. Students studied different types of artforms throughout the year. During this lesson, they learned about architecture as an art form, learned about and understood the decisions architects must make, recognized common characteristics and elements of architecture, and then used these skills and knowledge to create their own buildings.

Fruit Faces inspired by the artwork of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Arcimboldo created portraits comprised of different pieces of fruit. For example, he would use pea pods for eyebrows and cherries for lips. In class, we cut out apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, and cherries. Then each student chose other pieces to cut out to finish creating his/her portrait. Students chose different pieces and different compositions so that each portrait turned out very unique.

We made our own wild things after reading "Where the Wild Things Are." Students drew all the body shapes from observation, added texture (hair), painted limbs, drew facial features, and then assembled their wild thing together. Students practiced observational drawing, cutting, painting, and gluing.

2009-02-15T19:51:00.001-08:00

New Work (2009)

2009-02-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

12"x12"

12"x12"

12"x12"

12"x12"

Update 02.09

2009-02-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

It has been quite some time since I have posted anything. In fact, up until this fall it had been quite some time since I had created any paintings. I picked up by brushes again this fall and took an independent painting class and am doing the same this quarter. I felt incredibly rusty at first, and still struggle with a great deal of intimidation and hesitation.

I have found myself questioning and justifying my decisions and my work. Although I am still focusing on creating narrative layers in each painting, I have changed how I look at and approach the pelvic girdle. My original fascination with this part of the body was primarily on the shape. Rather than continue to paint the bone realistically and abstractly, I have been focusing on simply the shape of bone and have done so by creating different bone stencils.

Although I am still trying to figure out my new approach and trying to comfortable again, I am pleased with the new changes I have made.

While I'm at it, here is another new update....
I am so close to being finished with my masters. I have one and a half quarters left and will graduate in June.

Artist Statement

2007-06-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

Work from 2007

2007-06-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

A Bad Name
28"x37"

Beaten Path
18"x30"

Skeleton

Curvature of the Mind
36"x32"

Image from show at The Cannery Gallery

Work from 2007

2007-06-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

work from january-april 2007

Crooked Stairways
(series of four 14"x16" each )
56"x16"

Arriving at Clarity
48"x12"

Almost There
24"x24"

Helping Hand
24"x24"

Looming Intimidation
36"x36"

Work from 2006

2007-06-24T12:06:00.001-07:00

Catharsis
48"x60"

Lurking Within
32"x40"

Dissection
24"x36"

Dig Two Graves (6 of series of 6)
12"x12"

Work from 2006

2007-06-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some pieces from september-december 2006

Dig Two Graves (5 of series of 6)
12"x12"

Dig Two Graves (1 of series of 6)
12"x12"

Dig Two Graves (series of six)
Image from The Cannery Gallery
72"x12"

Of the Body
48"x36"

Core
72"x48"

Opposites
(24"x24"each) 24"x48"