COVER STORY
COVER STORY
Jenny Newland gives new meaning to phrase,“ struggling artist”
Growing up as a child, Jenny traveled a lot with her family because her father enlisted and served in the United States Air Force.“ I attended kindergarten and first grade at a school on a military base in the country of Spain.” When she turned seven her father was transferred to Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.“ My parents wanted more of a stable life for us kids, so we stayed in Arizona until all of us kids had graduated from high school”, informed Jenny.
Jenny’ s older sister Linda, who is nine years older, inspired Jenny to be an artist.“ I can recall my parents raving about her drawings, she was a natural and I really wanted to learn to draw like her,” Jenny said. She knew by the fourth grade that she had become pretty good at drawing because her peers would ask her to draw for them.“ My ability to draw was a great ice breaker to making friends with my classmates,” expressed Jenny.
Throughout her childhood and high school years, her biggest influences were her art teachers. Jenny replied,“ They believed in my talent more than I did myself.” Her art teachers would constantly enter Jenny’ s artwork into local and statewide art contests. She told us,“ My parents would notice that my name would be mentioned in the local newspaper and show me that I had won a ribbon.”
In the beginning of Jenny’ s art career, she decided to try being a Freelance Artist with a goal of working for Hallmark Greeting Cards.
She soon realized that freelancing wasn’ t always easy for someone soft spoken and reserved. She bravely approached several of her local print shop owners and got work here and there. Most of the work she received was two dimensional graphic arts such as: creating ads for the yellow pages, logos, and newsletters. During all this she was pregnant with her first son Douglas.
“ I heard about Applejack Art Partners, now known as“ Art Licensing International”, through a fellow artist Gail Wolfe. It didn’ t take long for Jenny to put together her portfolio of artwork and waited for a reply. Jack Appelman, CEO and founder of Applejack Art Partners( Art Licensing International) was very impressed with her artwork and signed Jenny up.
Jenny has been painting professionally now for twenty two years, and her animal portraitures have not only won awards, but international acclaimed in both the print and giftware markets. Jenny’ s artwork is highly sought around the world.
Throughout Jenny’ s art career she has encountered many set backs, but none so devastating as her bout with ST( Spasmodic Torticollis) alias Cervical Dystonia. In the year 2004, Jenny was struck with a neurological disease called Spasmodic Torticollis, a movement disorder not fully understood by the general populace, by doctors, and by the media. Jenny explained,“ It debilitated my life so much that the simplest of tasks became difficult... like getting dressed in the morning, getting food to my mouth, taking care of my
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