BiographyJennifer Gross was born in 1971 in Wichita, Kansas but spent most of her childhood in Phoenix and Tucson Arizona. She moved to Illinois for five years during her high school years where she started her college art education with an emphasis in drawing and watercolor. With the birth of her daughter she found herself back home in the Arizona desert. Jennifer began experimenting with clay and paper mache' and became a contributing artist at Arizona Handmade Gallery in Flagstaff as well as Main Stay Gallery in Phoenix. Jennifer went to school for six years before graduating from Arizona State University in the Spring of 2006 with a BFA in Ceramics. While at ASU she exhibited her ceramic work in several juried exhibitions and shows including 'Skin', 'Fresh: New and Upcoming Ceramic Artists', and 'The Feminine' which opened during First Friday at Monorchid.Artist StatementCreating art has always been a source of personal freedom and expression. As time has passed, it has evolved into something much deeper and necessary to my well being, like a mental or spiritual exercise. When I'm in the process of creating I can let go of everything. Like a cleansing, all the things I accumulate simply fall away. Ceramics is a medium that came to me later in my life. My first experience, and my foundation is drawing and painting. So surface design, line and color are equally important to form in my work. I like using my hands to physically sculpt a shape and then spending just as much energy bringing if to life with color. I am completely enchanted by the human face. Like the picture to a story, it reveals so much about a person and each is different from the next. Most of our senses are located on and near our face and much of our communication is conveyed through it. The sacred gate to the brain, the crowned jewel, the face represents individuality, personality and identity.