Meet the Printmakers: Jen Hamilton

Jen Hamilton is an artist based in London, Ontario.  She received her BFA from NSCAD University as well as her Fine Art Advanced Diploma from Fanshawe College.  Jen has sat on the Board of Directors at Forest City Gallery, worked at Museum London as an art instructor and the Youth Council Coordinator and currently teaches at Fanshawe College.  She has exhibited professionally in various cities across Canada and internationally and her work can be found in both private and public collections. 

Domestic Postpartum is a series of over 2000 small houses and domestic structures that range in size from 1.5” to 12” tall and wide.  I constructed them using materials from my archive of several years of art making, including drawings, paintings, etchings, screen prints and writings.  I tore, ripped, shredded and cut into pieces past work to create new objects, thus, Domestic Postpartum was born from creative destruction. 

In this work I explore, critique and visualize themes of “creating a home” and “domesticated duties.”  Showing sacrifice as a tool in art making as well in life, these small sculptures and prints are a response to the struggle of my entering motherhood while trying to maintain an art practice.  The monotony of my every day life includes repetition, familiar motions and the desire for recognizable outcomes.  The fact that printmaking weaselled its way into this project is fitting, for these motions and outcomes are anticipated within its practice.  With this work, I am interested in visually challenging the difference between loss and change, shifts in plans, loneliness and over crowding. I am also exploring what it means to be an artist, feminist and mother and the pre-constructed roles that are given to each.