Bio

Jennifer Bender is an Indiana native and graduate of Columbus College of Art & Design with a commercial photography BFA in “Media Studies”. She creates in a variety of mediums, including digital photography, video, paint, pen & ink, mixed media collage, and creative writing. Jennifer’s fine art leans toward graphic illustration, her writing leans toward bizarre speculative fiction, and her photographic work is often compilations of 10 – 100 images stitched together in layers to create a fish-eyed altered reality. Sometimes these are also created in stereo 3D, manually assembled during long, cross-eyed sessions at the computer. Jennifer, her partner Simon La Bozetta, and daughter Ilya, live in a Victorian home under “lovingly tolerated rehabilitation” in Olde Town East. She currently works as a national project manager, creative director, and social media manager at a large custom sign company in Columbus, and as a digital photo technician, retouching portraits and digitally restoring badly damaged antique photographs at a Photo Studio in German Village.

 

Artist Statement

Dearly held beliefs and understandings about life and the world we live in are built upon upbringing, experience, and perception. Perception, as they say, is your reality. Despite my deeply emotional and intuitive leanings, I tend to be a highly logical person. As such, it is not unusual for me to simultaneously perceive and hold two opposing opinions about any one subject. Because of this, dualities often present themselves within my work, peacefully co-existing despite the tensions they create. Within my art and creative writing I like to challenge the viewer to check their beliefs and perceptions, to consistently stress-test their “reality” from new angles rather than become habitually set in limiting opinions created by a single perception or from a single angle. There are an infinite number of possible “realities” available to each of us. It’s just a shame we cannot try them all. Fortunately, we can visit, evaluate, and test alternate realities in our imaginations any time we choose. It’s one of the earmark singularities of being human, and one we should never forget to use.