About Jennifer Murphy
ABOUT ME
I am an artist, writer, gardener, teacher, and communitarian, based in Asheville, NC. I'm involved in many local creative community projects. I'm a founder and member of Street Creature Puppet Collective. I'm on the board of the local Fringe Festival. I volunteer with 12 Baskets Cafe - a free cafe/food pantry, and more. I try to create things I wish existed everyday.
As an artist I work in many materials including paper mache, painting, collage, fabric, watercolor, mosaic, concrete and most recently, ceramics and willow. I create puppetry, costuming, installations and garden art. I have a BFA from California Institute of the Arts and a certificate in permaculture design.
I grew up in a little town in New England, daughter of an artist and an entrepreneur. I lived for 20 years in Los Angeles before moving to Western NC. I am the oldest of 6 amazing siblings, am married to the brilliant weirdo Paul Hersey of Organic Armor, and get to be mom to 2 beautiful humans and nana to another.
RECENT PROJECTS
In fall 2021 I initiated and helped organize the Hominy Rising exhibit of temporary art installations and site specific performances at the Hominy Creek Greenway. In spring/summer of 2022 I wrote and directed a puppet play for families called The Earth is Alive! based on songs about Appalachian plants. I was the March 2022 artist in residence at Revolve Gallery in Asheville, and the January 2023 artist in residence at the Aquarium Gallery in New Orleans.
An older project was Masks of Love, created in March 2020 in response to the shortage of PPE in the face of Covid 19. With a great team I helped build a volunteer effort to get cloth masks into the hands of those that needed them. After a while Masks of Love grew into a business, staying committed to the mission of donating masks to under-served neighbors. We have donated almost 10,000 masks since we began. You can still buy masks here.
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Masks of Love EMAIL
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