Jennifer Baker is an artist with a studio in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia. She’s been making art for 30 years, and has shown in New York and Philadelphia. Jennifer attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and received a Visual Arts Fellowship from the PA Council on the Arts in 1993.

Jennifer started making monoprints in the early 1990s to capture the images that she could see from her rooftop and the streets of Northern Liberties as it was burning and crumbling around her. She returned to the theme of Northern Liberties earlier this year to see what remains of this former industrial neighborhood and determine what the impact of change has been on individual and neighborhood life.

How did you decide to work with monoprints for this project?
I began making monoprints when my daughter was born and I needed to work faster. I had been making sculptures that took a year or so to complete one piece, and being able to complete a monoprint in a couple of hours was very satisfying. The immediacy and the texture of the medium worked so well to communicate the atmosphere that I was trying to create in my Northern Liberties images. It really seemed to fit with the subject matter.
The Northern Liberties pieces I am doing right now are not monoprints. I am making paintings on wood panels and working to translate that same immediacy to the new medium. It is a challenge for me to try to keep working fast and not belabor the pieces.

What did working with this medium allow you to do that other mediums might not allow?
As I said there is a great appeal in the quickness of the medium, because having to work to complete a piece in about 3 or 4 hours (before the paint becomes too dry to print) forces me to focus on what is most important about each image, to get to its essence and leave out all the extraneous information and detail. I think it forces me to make bolder images with more impact than if I had the time to put in all the little details that I might be tempted to add if I had more time. Also, I love the unpredictability of the medium and have learned how to make use of that.

What initially drew you to First Person Arts?
I think that most art has an element of autobiography or memoir, and sometimes it is literal and direct and sometimes it is completely hidden. I have done work that fits both of those categories, but my Northern Liberties Project to me really is a memoir, although it is a memoir of my observations of my neighborhood rather than of myself. I am interested in looking for the artist, or the personal and strongly felt ideas, in all kinds of artwork and First Person Arts is a good place to do that.

What’s your favorite N. Libs haunt and why?
My studio. I don’t have time to hang out anywhere else. Although I do like the coffee shop around the corner (Higher Grounds) and Kaplan’s Bakery down the street. I often walk around the neighborhood with my camera and sketchbook.