Art is Life
I was introduced to
Candy Jernigan's art and book when I was going through cancer treatment more than a decade ago. Her meticulously arranged collages, paintings, and drawings have had a profound impact on the way I view art, life, and visual storytelling. Before reading her book, I had never seen how powerful art journaling could be -- that it could also be an artistic tool for social commentary.
Candy Jernigan (b. 1952- 1991) attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Soon after graduating she became a painter, set and costume designer in Provincetown, MA. In
Evidence, Stokes Howell wrote, "
By the time she returned to New York in 1980 she was starting to develop the themes and methods she would work with the rest of her life."
Candy described the transformative process of taking found objects, "trash," and discarded materials from life and turning them into art:
"In 1980, as I set out on my first trip to Europe, I decided to make a book that would contain any and all physical "proof" that I had been there: ticket stubs, postcards, restaurant receipts, airplane and bus and railroad ephemera. . . food smears, hotel keys, found litter, local news, pop tops, rocks, weather notations, leaves, bags of dirt--- anything that would add information about a moment or a place, so that a viewer could make a new picture from the remnants."
"We can still feel her presence and share her vision, walk the streets she walked, notice the things she noticed. We are changed because she was among us." Chuck Close, forward of
Evidence
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