Our Tierra Verde Juror:
Jennifer Epperson
Epperson is a 4th generation Texan, originally from Houston. She was an entrepreneur in the later decades of the 20th century, she started two service companies that served the oil industry, for which she received national and international recognition.
In 1998, she left the business world to study art at Glassell School MFAH to study art history and painting. Epperson met other artists, attended gallery openings and museums, participated in public art as part of her education. The artist attributes her foundational education to Houston’s art culture.
The artist moved to Northern Arizona in 2003 and fell in love with the weightless air and endless vistas of red earth and crystal blue sky. Mesas and narrow canyons cut from eons of wind inspired the artist. Mountain snowmelt fed the creek from the ponderosa pine forests to the high desert. The energy of place began to transform her work.
Epperson continues to work in a series. An ongoing series since 2013, Women as Birds, Portraits of Power is a worthy example of expanding an idea over time and place. Surrealist techniques and practices and a commitment to the female gaze are intricately woven through her work. Diving deep into the unconscious, the artist brings imaginings and dreams to the surface, creating conscious translations in visual form. The work is provocative, as is the artist. She explores the human condition including difficult topics such as childhood sexual assault and women’s power and reflects on current culture and politics.
In 2018, Epperson relocated to the Texas hill country, where she continues studio work and art activism. In 2019, Epperson was awarded the Volcanic Artist Residency in Whakatane, New Zealand to study Maori history and art. There she engaged four women as models for portraits to add to Women as Birds series.
Upon return to San Marcos, she began to create work inspired by springs and aquifers, water being the element she ties to the place. The natural environment and gardening keep her close to the earth and inspire her outdoor creative work. During Covid lockdown, Epperson embarked on a 15-month life drawing project that includes 32 drawings and paintings of nudes from the female gaze.
Epperson continues to live in the hill country of Texas with her husband, and a plethora of native plants, butterflies, and hummingbirds. She has a three-month artist residency scheduled in Provence area of France later this year where she hopes to discover, yet again, how place affects art.
Education:
Glassell School, MFAH, Houston, TX
Selected Exhibitions:
2025 Studio Tour 2018- current TheStudio61, San Marcos, TX
2025 Women’s Exhibition, The Price Center San Marcos, TX
2024 Out of Our Minds, Art Salon Group Exhibition, Inspired Minds Gallery, Buda, TX
2024 Women’s Exhibition, The Price Center San Marcos
2023 Annual Juried Exhibition San Antonio Art League and Museum San Antonio, TX
2023 Women’s Exhibition The Price Center San Marcos TX
2022 Reshaping Trauma Through Art (solo exhibition) The Price Center Gallery San Marcos TX
2021 Women’s Exhibition The Price Center San Marcos TX
2021 Dreamland Arts to Hearts Online Gallery TX
2020 Salon des Refuses Sedona Art Center TX
2019 Texas Tiny Art 218 Gallery San Marcos TX
2018 Unplug Herberger Gallery Phoenix AZ
2018 Women as Birds-Portraits of Power (solo exhibition) Sedona Art Center, Sedona AZ
2017 Herberger International Invitational Arizona Center Phoenix AZ
2017 Twelve by Twelve Sedona Art Center Sedona AZ
2017 Faces Off Herberger Gallery Phoenix AZ
2016 Everything You Want to Know About Women (solo exhibit) Sedona AZ
2015 Surrealism Week Sedona AZ
2015 Sedona Icons Indian Gardens Oak Creek Canyon AZ
2013 Guns/Children Exhibition Sedona Public Library Sedona AZ
2011 First Friday Solo Exhibition Flagstaff AZ
2009 First Friday Solo Exhibition Flagstaff AZ
2002 Pairing: Portraits of Couples (solo exhibit) Glassell School Houston TX
2002 Annual Juried Exhibition Allen Center Houston TX
2000 Spirit of Women: Pin-ups and Glamour Girls (solo exhibit) The Artery Houston TX
Teaching and Lectures:
2024-2025 Woman to Woman, The Modern Muse from the Female Gaze, San Marcos, TX
2021 The Superpowers of Women Society of Women Engineers TXST
2019 Women as Birds-Portraits of Power Whakatane NZ
2019 The Superpowers of Women Gender and Diversity Studies TXST
2017 Art from the Dark Side Arizona Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology Phoenix AZ
2017 Transgender Salon Arizona Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology Phoenix AZ
2016 Power of Women League of Women Voters Coconino County, AZ
2014 What is Art? Olli, Yavapai College Cottonwood AZ
2012 A Place for Art Mary Fisher Theatre Sedona AZ
Collections:
Works held in private collections in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Costa Rica
Curatorial/Theater Projects:
2015 LopLop and The Queen Indian Gardens Oak Creek Canyon AZ
2013 Guns/Children Sedona Public Library AZ
2012 Art in the Garden, Historic District Sedona AZ
Grants and Residencies:
2022 City of San Marcos for Reshaping Trauma Through Art
2019 Volcanic Artist Residency Bay of Plenty Whakatane NZ
2025 Artist Residency, Viens, FR