As a visual artist I explore our relationship to the natural world, inspired by energy cycles in nature and environmental concerns, specifically plant and animal biodiversity.
My current project Plant Paint Cross-Pollinate is a public art migrating mural project focused on the importance of native plants to pollinators and ecosystem health through collaborative community art and planting events. In Jan-Feb 2023, the public will collaborate on twenty large-scale butterfly murals at ‘Plant and Paint’ events, while planting native seeds to take home. In May-Oct 2023 the ‘Butterfly Mural Migration’ will activate the communities’ conservation land to inspire eco-friendly land care.
Artist Bio
Jenn Houle is a visual artist and native New Englander. She has held artist residencies in Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Vermont Studio Center, and the Plumbing Museum. Ms. Houle is a grant recipient from the Puffin Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cornell Council for the Arts, Einaudi Foundation, and John Hartell Graduate Award for Art and Architecture. Recent exhibits include Terrestrial Magnetism solo show at Fitchburg State University, Meteors are space eggs solo show at UMASS Amherst, Watching the seasons change at Museum of the White Mountains, Searching for Life at Mass Audubon’s Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, and Urban Wildlife: Learning to Co+Exist at RISD.
She currently teaches at Northern Essex Community College and Fitchburg State University. Houle received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and an MFA from Cornell University. Jenn recently completed a mind-bending research trip to the sites of prehistoric cave art in southern France where she connected with our earliest roots of art-making.
Jenn’s public art projects raise awareness around environmental concerns. This began with ‘Featherlight: Foul Falls’ at Ithaca Falls (a former Brownfield site due to Ithaca Gun Co.’s manufacturing process and coincidentally the site of Hans Haacke’s ‘Spray of Ithaca Falls: Freezing and Melting on Rope’). A previous collaborative public art project highlighted a brook restoration project at the Mary Dennison Park along with the Framingham Department of Public Works, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Umbrella Arts & Environment Program, OARS and Framingham Boys & Girls Club.
