For Jenny Braun, lecturer in the art department here at SSU, art has been an ever-present source of joy since before she can remember. “It’s hard to say where it started, but I can say that I’ve always enjoyed using my hands to make things and I think it was that affinity to craft and materials that led me into art,” wrote Braun via email.

Braun is a Seawolf through and through. Her career started here at SSU, when she went through the BFA program. “This is where I realized I was an artist. I had so many wonderful and supportive professors and there is such an amazing sense of community,” Braun wrote. After SSU, she continued on to the University of Iowa, where she earned an MA and an MFA in Printmaking and Intermedia. 

“For me, printmaking and digital media have so many things in common. They are both process driven and rely on layers, multiples, and have a certain malleability that I love to explore,” she wrote.

With Sonoma State making such an impact during her time as a student, she “…was thrilled to have the opportunity to come back to that program and teach,” she wrote. “My favorite part of teaching is supporting and problem-solving with driven students and their ideas,” she continued. 

She teaches a variety of courses at SSU, including, “2D and 3D fundamentals, drawing, and printmaking.”

While cultivating the next generation of great artists, Braun continues to work on her own projects and develop her art. 

“I have done several semi-permanent murals around Santa Rosa using wheat-paste and silkscreen. I love when I get to work on such a large scale,” she wrote. 

Braun is currently working on a variety of new works, including, “… drawings that jump off a previous body of work in which I used Snapchat to create abstract digital collages and then made phone-screen sized paintings of those collages. Now I am making some drawings and thinking about the edges of the boundary of the screen,” she wrote.

In addition to this innovative endeavor with Snapchat, Braun has been delving into new territory. “I have… been in an exploring stage and have been making things with new materials. This part of making work is sometimes the most fun because I give myself permission to play with lots of different materials without a specific outcome in mind,” she wrote.

To close I asked Braun, “What is one thing you’ve learned that you would share with your college self?” Her response? “It’s ok to fail. Our failures bring us new paths and opportunities.”