Jennifer Crenshaw

Jennifer Crenshaw is Associate Professor and Area Chair of Fabric Design. Jennifer received her B.B,A. in Marketing from The University of Georgia and her M.F.A in Textile Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has extensively travelled worldwide exploring textiles and art in many cultures and she is passionate about learning the history, materials and techniques utilized in each of these cultures. In 2018, Jennifer attended a residency in Jaipur, India where she received individual instruction in the block printing process from a master printer. While in India, she also travelled to Bagru to study their dyeing and printing processes and to Kota to learn about the weaving structures specifc to this region. In 2019, Jennifer travelled to Marrakech, Morocco to study textiles in this region and she also had work exhibited in a two-person exhibition in Newcastle, Australia. Professor Crenshaw is a passionate instructor who respects each of her students individual talents and aesthetics. Jennifer incorporates her knowledge and experiences into her classroom instruction and challenges her students to consider all aspects of art and design in the development and growth of their art work.

Her primary research in Fabric Design includes two modes of creative processes: Structural and Surface Design. Both of these practices provide her the opportunity to explore traditional and contemporary textiles and allows her to envision how both processes can overlap to create new and exciting materials. Throughout her career, the objective has been to create visual imagery that is familiar yet transformed through material, scale, composition and process. She strives to create
work that has both a universal appeal and a visual language that is a fusion of: historical and modern, traditional and contemporary, the familiar and the unexpected. By employing both practices in her work, she has maintained a harmonious continuity and formal connection with concepts she has worked with throughout my career.