Jennifer Celio

710, 2004

Graphite pencil on panel

20 x 48”

Jennifer Celio was born and raised in the Los Angeles area. “The world around me” succinctly describes the nature of her pencil drawings. She creates art from the often banal and frequently universal imagery of the roadways in the urban environment around her. In her work, the romantic landscape ideal is extended to include the sidelines of the freeways, the foliage and signage and circumstances that exist in the in-between areas. There is an attempt to extract the hidden beauty in the ordinary places that are along her daily commute routes, first by photographing them. Then, utilizing a laborious and detailed technique in graphite pencil on white gessoed wood panels, she seeks to portray a world hidden in plain view. Celio now lives and works in Long Beach, California. She is represented by Romo Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, and Koelsch Gallery in Houston, Texas.