gweki
Support: 17 1/8 × 15 in. (43.5 × 38.1 cm)
eMuseum Notes
Gendron Jensen has been working in northern New Mexico since 1987. Working directly from nature as a realist, Jensen’s work reflects an homage to the natural world and an interest in the taxonomies that comprise it. He often works with specimens studied in natural museum collections or found in nature. At the same time, Jensen takes certain liberties with the bones, combining bones of distinct animals, for example, to tell a broader narrative. The New Mexico Museum of Art is the only museum to represent Gendron Jensen’s complete works in printmaking, which has been an important aspect of his artistic practice since he was in a Benedictine monastery during his 20s and worked in the monastery print shop.
This image represents two mollusk shells from Minnesota, where the artist is from. He writes, “This watery creature is like the canary in the coal mines, giving litmus proof of water quality for lakes and streams of the far northwoods in Minnesota and everywhere else.” The title is a phonetic representation of the Ojibwe word for “turn,” inspired by the movement of mollusks.
- bone
- Nature
- still lifes
- animal material
- shell