Motivation for the Maker: Jennifer Mao

Every week , these beautiful textiles stitched with encouraging words would appear in my feed with the message “pay-what-you-wish.” I couldn’t believe it. Who is this artist that is creating such lovely work on a weekly basis, and then be so willing to leave it up to the generosity of strangers to determine how much compensation she would receive? I had to find out, so I reached out. Here’s a sneak peek into the life and work of Jennifer Mao.

Enjoy,

What was your early memory of making?
Growing up, we lived in a house that was built & solely occupied by its previous owner. You could tell that the house was built *for* someone because there was so much specificity in the details - a bathroom with neon green counters, psychedelic wallpapers in every room, a huge fireplace with a stone masonry chimney. One of my earliest memories was taking a full box of crayons and scribbling a “masterpiece” ALL OVER the concrete slab hearth. I remember being so compelled by the lovely expanse of that concrete as a blank canvas! In retrospect I can obviously now understand why my parents weren’t as taken by my “masterpiece” as I was at the time :)

What motivates you to keep making?
I started dabbling in textiles fairly recently - spurred entirely by the pandemic and subsequent shelter-in-place orders. In the past year, I’ve found that structure has been helpful for me, particularly around making. I guess you could say that for me, it’s less about motivation to keep making - and moreso that making motivates me to keep going.

What do you do when you feel uninspired?
Take a walk. It’s the best way for me to remind myself that there’s a world that exists outside of my head! Since I live in a city (in Brooklyn technically, right on the border with Queens), there’s always a lot to see, and think about. Even though the geographic borders of my life have “shrunk” considerably in the past year, I’m grateful to have been forced to build a deeper relationship with the tiny parameter of my immediate neighborhood.

What’s one thing you wish you could tell your younger artist self?
Life isn’t linear! Resist the notion that you need to commit to the one-directional idea of “progress”.

See more of jennifer’s work on Instagram @jjj_mao