At this year’s Village Arts Festival, my painting Stacked Serenity took an unexpected tumble when a gust of wind knocked over a display wall, tearing two gashes in the canvas. What followed was a careful repair process, a lesson in patience, and a reminder that art, like artists, can be resilient and evolve after a setback.

Before I paint an animal, I want to see it in person - not a picture or a video - in real life. Everywhere we go, we take a trip to the zoo. We have visited zoos all over the country.

I picked up my art from the Midwest City Library and the stingray is heading to The Village Art Festival on Oct. 11! Come see the newly renovated stingray, the slow-moving Merry Men of Mount Rushmore, and shop calendars, notecards, postcards, and original paintings.

Flamingos, stingrays, octopuses, and more are officially on display at the Midwest City Library! Come see the colorful, quirky, and playful art of Jennifer Jones this September.

President Lincoln is looking less like a terrified monster and more like himself—though his eyes are still a saga. Follow the slow irony of Merrymen of Mount Rushmore, painted in acrylic, stone faces with real eyes.

Our playful stingray art is complete and ready for a name! Submit your suggestion online or at the Midwest City Library. Don’t miss seeing it in person at the Village Arts Festival on October 11. Help give this lively stingray the perfect name!

My Merry Men of Mount Rushmore painting is still wallowing in the ugly stage. Eyes are straight, heads are forming, and I’ve promised to keep at it—progress-ish.

Looking back at my earliest works compared to the newest, I was genuinely surprised. You know you grow as an artist but seeing it all side-by-side was like discovering my old middle school diary… a little embarrassing, but fascinating.

The first grotesque wore a purple robe, which clearly pushed me into monk territory. So, I leaned into it. Every monk after that wore the same purple robe. Each one stands against a bold background — green, orange, and pink. (After all, why settle for one color when you can use three?) The repetition gave the series some visual unity — like a weird, slightly disheveled, color-coded choir.

Road trip to Mount Rushmore leads to painting.