Jenny McGee Dougherty
Photo by Jill Hoyle for Designtex, stylist Meg Farrell
Jenny is a visual artist and designer based in Portland, Maine. Her work is influenced by her surroundings and expresses a particular interest in the unwitting overlap between nature and human action. Her visual vocabulary is informed by the patterns, colors and shapes around us, and she seeks to highlight the undiscovered beauty of everyday life.
Where do you call home?
Home is South Portland, Maine, but I left my heart in San Francisco (and California, in general).
How would you describe your creative practice?
My creative practice has evolved to be very experimental and forgiving. For a while, I would paint things in a very meticulous way (see Pixel pattern), and once I had kids, my life turned upside down and I realized that I just don't have the time to work in that way. It has been an exploration in how to allow myself to make mistakes, fix them, and continue discovering new ways of working. I do a lot of 'erasing' with different tools and mediums.
How do you typically start your day?
These days I start very early, as my kiddos wake me up sometime around the crack of dawn. Once everyone is dressed and fed and off to school, I head to my day job - I am currently the Associate Director of Artists at Work & Alumni Relations at Maine College of Art & Design. I love my job because I get to work with young artists and help them explore their professional creative paths. It fuels me to be immersed in an environment of creative people, who are thinking critically about the world around them and experimenting with materials and mediums. I am lucky that my studio is close to my office, so I will often check in on my way in and out of work, and sometimes work on an in-progress painting or something before heading home.
What are some of the recurring themes and explorations in your work?
I have always been interested in decay and how it relates to ideas of order and chaos in the natural world. Most of my inspiration comes from observing, specifically when I'm out walking or running in a city setting.
What studio item can you not live without?
Beige paint!I use it in pretty much everything I'm making.
What is your earliest memory of making something?
I remember entering a coloring contest at the local supermarket when I was maybe 5. I won it and I think that must have set my life trajectory for the boost of confidence!
Who are your biggest influences?
When I was about 20 years old, I went to the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco and saw the ‘Beautiful Losers’ show - a group show of large, colorful works by sculptural heroes, such as Barry McGee, Chris Johanson, Ed Templeton and the late Margaret Kilgalen. I was particularly drawn to Margaret’s work, and it really impacted me for a long time. I think her work has probably been one of the biggest influences on me. More recently, I had a similar moment visiting a Nathalie DuPasquier show in Philadelphia, and something sparked in me that has been really exciting. I've been feeling a connection to her prolific work that spans so many mediums.
What do you do when you encounter a creative block?
The thing I have realized about myself is that I'm never actually experiencing creative block, but I may experience process block. Recently I had a solo show of paintings, and afterward I had no desire to paint. But I was super excited about sewing, so I just leaned into that. When I am tired of working in one way, I'll just switch it up until I get tired of that.
What are some small pleasures you have been folding into your life?
Gardening has been a place I can go when I need to detach from the everyday hustle. I have a big yard and I'm slowly turning it into one big garden. Watching plants grow is one of my greatest pleasures in life.
How do you know when a piece of work is complete?
I don't really. I am often reworking things, painting over something I thought was done but then discovering something new after. I sort of think of everything as a work in progress, even after it's left my studio!
Tell us about the design(s) you've created for Designtex.
The first design I did for Designtex was the ‘Pixel’ pattern. That was back when I was in fact experiencing creative block, so I challenged myself to paint a grid with as many colors as I could. I was learning weaving at the time, so the grid was on my mind. I love the freedom to just fill colors in and see how they reacted to their neighbor colors. I think that pattern is so fun and versatile, it has been amazing watching it travel all over the world (see the rug in Munich!).
The ‘Fragments’ pattern is another example of when I had thought a painting was finished, and then returned to it and painted shapes over the shapes. I think a lot about public spaces and how we interact with high traffic areas. ‘Resurfacing’ is a nod to the way graffiti often gets painted over in mismatched colors, creating a new work of art.
‘Rake’ has a similar story, where there was an entirely different painting underneath, and I had an urge to paint black over it, but then experimented with a comb to create textures. I love using different tools that remove my hand from the equation just a little bit more. I love working with Designtex because my work travels around and presents itself in different iterations each time, and it's always so fun for me to see who does what with it.