Jennifer Nehrbass

Womenfest Destiny examines the European exploration of the Western United States through a fictionalized female perspective. This series of works include paintings of landscapes and portraits.

Inspired by Willa Cather’s,“O’ Pioneers” the portraits in this series are protagonists in a version of Western History where females are the explorers and documentarians. They are a mix of different historical periods and influences. Similar to geography each portrait has layers of historical signifiers that show the depth and continuity of culture. The visual thin layers allow both the past and present to be seen at the same time.  I use realism in the portraits as a counterpoint to abstraction to create tension between the physical and intellectual experience while viewing the painting. Females in these paintings have agency, something that is not addressed in history. While researching the suffragettes I discovered women in Wyoming and Montana were the first women to have the right to vote, largely because of their power and wealth as proprietors of brothels. It is hard to categorize women of the west and in this series I celebrate the beauty in the mix of cultures

The one hundredth meridian is a mark where the frontier began and colonial society ended. Landscape paintings were used to romanticize and to promote expansion that empowered the idea of manifest destiny. Inspired by Bierstadt’s paintings, my landscapes ask the viewer to imagine a world that has no man made boundaries. These landscapes critique social media which promotes users to create photos and posts that are manipulated to present a romanticized brand of their community, themselves and their lifestyle. 

All my paintings start from a digital collage that pulls from mediated imagery. The landscapes are created from various locations to become the idealized vistas .The lines are fluid creating a horizon that is ever changing.The moon and sun are purposefully placed as signifiers of direction. A true north or a beacon to bring one home.