BY Rebeca Schiller | March 31, 2010

Jennifer Maestre’s sculpture makes a point

“Get to the point” takes on a different meaning with Jennifer Maestre’s artwork.   Her sharp pencil sculptures are reminiscent of animal and plant species that possess the duality of desire and repulsion. Her message is in the tension between beauty and danger.
 
Raised in South Africa but educated in the United States, Maestre started playing around with pencils after she graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art with an MFA in glass. During her last year of school, she began working with pointy objects based on an idea she had of a silver box shaped like a sea urchin with a compartment that would contain a pearl. To reach the hidden chamber with its precious cargo, one would have to pull one of the spines or, in this case, a nail. Although the box was never made, Maestre still fooled around with the concept of the sea urchin using different materials including multi-colored nails and metal window screening. 
 
 
After graduation, Maestre continued with her work, but also started to teach herself beading, including the peyote stitch--an off-loom bead weaving technique in which the stitch may be worked with either an even or an odd number of beads per row, and can be woven as flat strips, in a flat round shape, or as a tube—for a series of nail and egg sculptures. Limited with the nails, she tested other pointy items, and discovered that working with pencils by turning them into beads, and sewing them together, kept all the qualities she wanted to incorporate to her artwork.
 
 
To create her sculptures, Maestre buys pencils in bulk; she cuts them into one inch sections, drills a hole through each one, sharpens them (the sea urchin theme appears often in her work) and sews them together, relying mostly on the peyote stitch. Using this technique provides flexibility so that the piece can be easily twisted and shaped into a form. 
 
 
Much of Maestre's inspiration comes from nature, mythology, and the illustrations of the renowned German naturalist Ernst Haeckel. Accident plays a role too. As Maestre commented in an interview with designer Reuben Miller, she learns from her mistakes: "A mistake, or a disaster, can sometimes be a great source of inspiration, because for me, at least, it sends my mind in a new direction."
 
 
Maestre's process starts with an idea of a shape, but there's no rigidity to her method and she has noted that sometimes the design she originally visualized takes a completely different turn. Sometime that unexpected change can become a challenge, especially sculptures that have legs and petals, which frequently have to be taken apart and refigured. But it's the dismantling and reconfiguring process that typically prompts inspiration for the next sculpture. 
 
Represented by Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Maestre's work has been covered in a variety of publications, including AmericanStyle, The Boston Globe, Arts Media, New York Times, and Sculpture. Her sculptures are included in collections at DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Massachusetts and the Sanford Corporation in Illinois.
 
What's next in line for Maestre and her pencil collection? According to Libby Cooper, owner of Mobilia Gallery, Maestre is expanding her work and designing a large wall piece as well as a chair, strung together one sharpened pencil at a time. 
 
To learn more about Jennifer Maestre, visit www.jennifermaestre.com or www.mobilia-gallery.com.