Jennifer Bock-Nelson

Quincy, IL

"When painting, I feel like myself. When sharing my art, I find my voice."

For more than 25 years, Jennifer Bock-Nelson has used art to examine perception, create inner order, and give form to experiences that can be difficult to express in words. Working primarily in oil paint, as well as mixed media, and large-scale murals, Jennifer creates images shaped by close observation.

Jennifer’s artistic curiosity began at an early age in her father’s optometry practice, where visual charts and lenses introduced her to the mechanics and mysteries of sight. Childhood visits to the library expanded her understanding of perception in another direction. An avid reader, Jennifer became fascinated by books as portals into alternative worlds and lived realities. Travel later broadened her perspective, particularly visits to oceans and national parks. She remains drawn to water and to the suggestion of life beneath its surface.

Jennifer’s creative process is intuitive, but it is also grounded in careful attention. When taking photographs for reference images, she works with “a sense of wonder and expectation.” Later, while sorting through the images, she waits for one to communicate a feeling of completeness. Inspiration often arrives while she is driving, through rain, shifting light, bridges, and fragmented views in rearview and side mirrors. A crystal hanging in her kitchen window casts moving rainbows across the walls and counters, while a GoPro allows her to explore perspectives in and around water. Her active dream life and love of science fiction and dystopian novels provide additional entry points into imagined worlds.

Jennifer was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, accompanied by depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, after experiencing sensory overload from a young age. Drawing and painting offered a refuge. While absorbed in making art, she became less aware of her body and the environmental stimuli around her. The loudness, brightness, and tightness would temporarily dissipate as she entered a flow state.

“I make art to keep inner order. I like the way my brain operates while painting.”

Her paintings emerge through an intense focus on shape, edge, value, and color. Jennifer compares the process to solving a puzzle, an activity she has always loved. Each decision contributes to the gradual appearance of an image, and that moment of emergence continues to drive her studio practice. The combination of methodical concentration and visual discovery gives the work its energy.

A self-described recovering perfectionist, Jennifer channels her desire for control into the studio. “I channel the part of me that needs everything ‘to feel right’ into my art,” she says. Over time, she has also learned when to step away from a piece rather than forcing a resolution through frustration.

Oil paint remains Jennifer’s most natural medium. She values its extended drying time and the flexibility offered by mediums and glazes. “Oil paint feels like home.” At the same time, her curiosity has led her to explore latex paint in murals and watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil in mixed-media work. She enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar materials and sees art as an expansive field with endless opportunities to grow, pivot, and begin again. Jennifer likens it to a choose-your-own-adventure story, with new chapters and endings always available.

Her willingness to take creative risks became especially clear when she accepted a commission for a 5,000-square-foot mural on a 55-foot-tall building, despite being terrified of heights. Jennifer agreed to complete the project in one month and to translate one of her three-by-four-foot paintings onto an architectural scale. The undertaking required enlarged circle calculations, new techniques for producing hazy effects in latex rather than oil, 229 hours of her own painting time, and another 100 hours from assistants.

That experience reflects the resilience Jennifer has cultivated throughout her life. She intentionally maintains a studio practice through life’s changing seasons, including the demands of raising two sons, teaching, and building an academic career. After working for 12 years as an adjunct instructor across five schools, she took a seven-year break from teaching. She later returned and is now a tenure-track studio art professor. Teaching and mentoring students have become meaningful extensions of her creative life.

Jennifer has also developed a deeper appreciation for her neurodiversity. For much of her life, she worked to hide or mask her tics. Applying for a disability artist grant marked the first time she spoke openly about Tourette Syndrome in a professional context. Jennifer is looking forward to working with ArtLifting as she now recognizes that her experiences contribute to her perspective and make her a more empathetic artist, educator, and parent.

For Jennifer, art offers both structure and possibility. She creates a space where concentration quiets sensory intensity, where separate fragments can be assembled into a coherent image, and where control becomes productive rather than restrictive.