ARTIST STATEMENT
My father was an artist.
And because he was an artist I knew what I was almost from the very start.
My first memories were of my Old Man pointing out some piece of beauty, oddness or curiosity tucked into the everyday around them.
I started writing and performing in high school and became a “serious-working” artist at eighteen while studying and being mentored by poet Achy Obejas. Like so many women creators, art became an on and off endeavor while I juggled marriage, young motherhood and health struggles.
My influences include Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Richard Pryor, Universal Studios Horror, James Baldwin, Salvador Dali, Tex Avery, Keith Haring, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, The Pentateuch, Art Spiegelman, Allison Bechdel and The Marx Brothers.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jae Green is a writer, second generation artist, mother and cancer survivor originally from the South side of Chicago. Her poetry can be found in anthologies such as Tia Chucha’s “Open Fist”, “Smithsonian Magazine”, “Hand Over Hand Magazine” “Antirhinnium”and “Voices from the Heartland”. She has performed at The Green Mill, Randolph Street Gallery, Uncommon Ground, The Chicago Cultural Center, WomanMade Gallery, The Chicago Poetry Fest, Metro, Around the Coyote, and The Catherine Edelman Gallery. She recently participated in BodyPassages, a year-long collaboration between the Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble and The Chicago Poetry Center.
© Jae Green