Artist Statement

My work explores ideas of gender, identity and liberty inspired by the graphic tradition of social commentary. I draw from medieval engraving, Persian miniatures, current politics, and graphic novels to create a contemporary narrative. I work in graphic media across eras from mezzotinting to animation. My content employs humor to attract the viewer and then asks them to confront greater social and psychological issues.

My previous series of etchings and lithographs address environmental themes using mythical figures confronting realities of encroaching technology and diminishing wilderness while continuing the search for utopian ideals, indulging in desire as a form of resistance. Inspirations include The History of Four Footed Beasts and Serpents (Edward Topsell, 1658) and maps charting the sea, populated by serpents, mermaids, mermen and sea monsters. I am attracted to how such encyclopedias conflate the real and the imagined, presenting chimera as if witnessed by the engraver. Based on their ubiquitous presence, one starts to believe that sea monsters are real.

My recent series of multiple plate intaglios “Haunted” presents a cast of characters emerging from a hybrid location, where the river Styx meets the Bardo. In this ferry/fairy waiting room, images float and emerge from orifices, colors are hyper saturated, and ghosts and humans pass through each other without hesitation. Interspecies communication is the norm and apparitions are your best friend, until they are not. Transmuting the history of feminist surrealism (Carrington, Varo) into the present political moment, these etchings present a witchy response to the absurdity of recent restrictions on bodily autonomy. By casting a spell, we are morphed into an owl, a vampire, a blue girl convening with a dead smoker. Like Daphne, we resist and survive by transforming.

The pandemic reminds us of our transient state as we pass through this moment in time, made partly of stardust from The Big Bang, partly of plastics from the deep sea; in due time we return to both. Spit bite, aquatint, multiple layers of rich color, working and reworking plates in search of the ultimate ephemeral tone- these alchemic techniques facilitate the ethereal portraits of my strange beings of resistance. In contrast to the bean counters, warmongers and neoliberal logic that got us into this vortex of death cult capitalism, a brief daydream returns us to our animal state, embracing us with a strange taxonomy, like a sweater from the thrift store, imbued with our collective dream of warmth.

My 2024-2025 collaborative research project “Disembodied Reembodied” is the result of an Artist in Residence at the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine. It resources the history of images of disembodied female anatomy in their extensive collections of to uncover contemporary experiences of women’s interactions with reproductive health and current political conversations surrounding their/our access to health care. The images and text draw attention to the disembodied approach to female pain and lack of autonomy and the history of images that subconsciously promote this perspective at a crucial time when women’s bodies and medical decisions are being discussed in the public sphere. Working across centuries, Disembodied Reembodied employs printmaking techniques to flatten time and question and reimagine the power of images that have impacted female healthcare.

Jenny Schmid is a fiscal year 2022 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Bikini Press International:

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Jenny Schmid

Artist Statement