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The Artist Portrait Project

A Photographic Memoir of Portraits Sessions with San Diego Artists, 2006-2016

Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

LIST PRICE ₹741.00

PRICE MAY VARY BY RETAILER

About The Book

After five years’ absence from San Diego’s art community, Jennifer G. Spencer returned and began to photograph the artists she became acquainted with during her thirteen-year stint as an executive director of a visual arts organization—a project that became a ten-year journey. In The Artist Portrait Project, Spencer reveals the results of her adventure in portraiture after her retirement, and shares how this endeavor enlightened and shaped her opinion of these fifty artists and her art community. Engaging and visually stunning, The Artist Portrait Project is a book about self-discovery and the persistence of the creative spirit.

About The Author

Jennifer G. Spencer is a painter/photographer who creates images using alternative photographic processes and digital imagery. Her career began as a painter back East in Massachusetts. After moving to California in the mid 1970s, her painting began to change—and during her brief business adventure in painting backdrops for photographers, her interest in photography emerged. Spencer’s curiosity and creative interests blossomed after attending Grossmont Community College, where she acquired an Associate Degree in Digital Art Media and Fine Art Photography. Her attention was drawn to photographic portraiture after her retirement from a visual arts non-profit and return to school.

Product Details

  • Publisher: She Writes Press (July 10, 2018)
  • Length: 120 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781631523946

Raves and Reviews

“Jennifer Spencer has created a very moving, compassionate, and celebratory series of portraits of a generation of tenacious San Diego artists. These creative men and women have beaten the attrition rate that so often snares artists in mid career and thereby enriched our community immeasurably through their profound influence as teachers and creators.” —Hugh M. Davies, PhD, Director Emeritus, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
“Jennifer Spencer, because of her dedicated work with the umbrella arts organization COVA, is beloved by many San Diego Artists. These artists make up the bulk of the portraits in this book and what is interesting is how she has continued to learn about and support them. This is shown not only in the words that accompany the images but in the images themselves. They tell us more than words could ever express. She has caught a mood of a time and so these photographs, which are works of art themselves, will also be an important historical record of this visual arts community.” —Patricia Frischer, founder and coordinator of San Diego Visual Arts Network
“Tucked into this wonderfully realized selection of 50 artists, there is a 51st: Jennifer Spencer is in every image. She is reflected in the generosity she gives the sitters, who are seen with respect and affection. Her camera distance, little more than arm's length, shows her intimacy. That her subjects open to her identifies her warmth, and she allows the artist's work to be as present and speak as eloquently as do their faces.” —Arthur Ollman, former director of MOPA (Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego), San Diego State University, head of the School of Art and Design
“For the past 10 years, Jennifer Spencer has taken intimate photographs of a cross section of the most influential mid-career and established artists working in the San Diego area. These photographs, which are presented in The Artist Portrait Project: Fifty San Diego Artists 2006-2016, are themselves works of art in that they reflect not only the unique personality of each artist, but also their diverse bodies of work. Jennifer’s portraits document an important period of time in the long history of San Diego as a world-class center for art, and remind us of the numerous accomplished artists we are lucky to call our own.” —Lawrence J. Poteet, Art Collector, Ablon, Lewis, Bass & Gale, LLP

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