Visual Language Studio Visit with Jenedy Paige

I’m not one of those artists that knew my calling in life from the age of five. I didn’t even try oil painting for the first time until I was a junior in college. I hear people talk about how all artists are just born with ability and I have to laugh. Mine has been a skill that I have developed over just hours and hours of plain old hard work and the prayer of faith.

As a Senior in High School my family moved to a small town in Northern Colorado where I found my dreams of academic grandeur dashed. No AP classes? No Honors program? This led me to signing up for six art classes. There, at a tiny high school in a tiny town, I found an art teacher that truly inspired me. She taught the idea that art was all about communicating a message, and this was news to me, I always thought it was about making something look “real”. The idea of being able to send a message through an image really spoke to my heart, and my passion for art began. I then went on to study at BYU-Idaho, at another small town in southeast Idaho, where I found myself once again inspired by amazing teachers. Though at the bottom of the raw talent pool, I was motivated by an academic scholarship and would go to school at 4:00 am to work before classes began. Little by little, I improved, I was able to keep my scholarship, and graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a BFA in illustration.


After college my husband and I moved to California where I continued to paint. I joined the Daily Painters craze, and just tried to get more experience behind my belt. I began teaching at a private art school and later would teach out of my own studio. I discovered I loved teaching just as much as I loved painting. I soon became a mother for the first time, and began the careful balance of juggling motherhood, teaching, and painting.

In 2010, I gave birth to my second son. Painting became harder than ever, but I knew that it was always second to being a mother, and I found that as I put my children first, time to paint always seemed to find a way. I learned to tell myself that it was okay if I only got 30 minutes to paint one day that meant I was 30 minutes better today than I was yesterday. I learned that in order to be a mother and an artist, you have to be patient with yourself.

In 2011, after a glorious summer with our two boys in Ensenada, Mexico, I found myself face to face with my worst nightmare. My beautiful three-year-old son was pulled from a pool, and we spent nearly two months in the hospital with him as he fought for his life. Then in November he quietly slipped home to the God that gave him life. What a gift he had been to our family, and what a gift art became to me as I dealt with all the emotions associated with such grief. I found solace in my faith, in my family, and in my painting. So many tears were shed as I tried to find some way to pull all the sorrow from my heart and let it go on a canvas. I found a new appreciation for art that could have come in no
other way. It took some time, but I found the tears began
to dry and the smiles began to return.

We now currently reside in Arizona, and I’m expecting our fourth child. I continue to paint a little bit every day, and try to have as much fun with my kids as I can. I know how fragile life can be, and truly try to soak up every moment. I continue to work as hard as I can, and pray as hard as I can, and look to the future with happy anticipation.

Jenedy Paige
www.jenedypaige.com