Jenn Houle

Artist Statement

As a visual artist I inspire ‘botanical belonging’ and eco-action by celebrating interconnection, the unique visual language of plants, and their complex relationships to animals and human society. Two decades of teaching art, endless naturalist curiosity, deep concern for all living beings, and motherhood shape my artistic practice.  

Artist Bio

Jenn Houle is a public artist and native New Englander. Two decades of teaching art, endless naturalist curiosity, a deep concern for all living beings, and motherhood shapes her artistic practice. Jenn is a current Great Marsh Artist at Manship Artist Residency, and has created a ‘Dark Skies’ collaborative glow-in-the-dark mural and public program at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. She is now launching the second cycle of ‘Plant Paint Cross-Pollinate’, a migratory mural project focused on the magical power of native plants to heal our planet with community planting and painting events. 

Past public art projects include: ‘Featherlight: Foul Falls’ at Ithaca Falls (a former Brownfield site due to Ithaca Gun Co.’s manufacturing process) and a collaborative community installation at Mary Dennison Park along with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Umbrella Arts & Environment Program, Framingham Department of Public Works, OARS and Framingham Boys & Girls Club.   

Jenn has held artist residencies in Great Smoky Mountain National Park (twice, once evacuated during fire storms then returned to lead synchronous fireflies programming), Vermont Studio Center, the Plumbing Museum and is a 2024 ChangeMaker with Essex County Community Foundation. Ms. Houle is a grant recipient from the Collective Futures Fund, Puffin Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Essex County Community Foundation, Cornell Council for the Arts, Einaudi Foundation, and John Hartell Graduate Award for Art and Architecture. 

Jenn is a painter at heart and received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and an MFA from Cornell University. She currently teaches at Fitchburg State University and Northern Essex Community College, and recently has taught at UMass Lowell, Montserrat College of Art and Southern New Hampshire University. Recent exhibits include ‘Terrestrial Magnetism’ solo show at Fitchburg State University,  ‘Meteors are space eggs’ solo show at UMASS Amherst, and ‘Re-examining Conservation’ with Creature Conserve at Brown University’s Granoff Center and at the Swale House on Governors Island, NY.