Berlin, London, and Ireland

After my residency in Denmark I flew to Berlin to visit The Residency for Ceramics in Berlin to see if it would be a place I would someday like to go. Indeed it was and I also got to see a little of the city. A big thanks to Stephen Kent a friend of a friend who let me stay in his studio for a night. In Berlin I was able to see the Berlin Wall.. WOW. Then I was off to London to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

The Berlin Wall.

A little inspiration.

The V&A Museum in London left me speechless.

 V&A

Together in Ireland! Forrest was leading a Potters Council trip to Ireland and I was able to meet him for a few days and then we celebrated our three year wedding anniversary camping on the ocean just outside Galway. 

The Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Ireland.

Guldagergaard - International Ceramic Research Center, Denmark

Last year I started a project called Dear Grandma, a collection of recipes from people all over the world. I had first asked my grandmothers for recipes from their childhood and then extended the project out to anyone who wanted to contribute. This project led me to envision Dear Grandma | Denmark, which developed from an interest in my family’s food history. As the granddaughter of Danish and German immigrants I have always been curious about the traditions and foods of my ancestors’.  

In May, I had the opportunity to be an artist in residence at Guldagergaard - International Ceramic Research Center. I lived in the small town of Skælskør, Denmark it is located on the west side of the island Zealand not far from Copenhagen. While in Denmark I was able to visit the towns and churches where my ancestors had lived. My G.G. Grandmother Christine Hansen was from Mullerup and attend Drøsselbjerg  Kirke (Church) and my G.G. Grandpa Hans Hansen came from Neder Vindinge and attended Kastrup Kirke (Church). Conveniently, both of these towns were within an hour of the town I was staying and I was able to visit. What an amazing experience to walk across the same land that my ancestors did so many years before.

My main goal with the residency was to learn about Danish food, culture, and traditions surrounding the meal and I did just that!  I shared meals, cooked, and collected recipes from many kind Danes. I based my work on these experiences and used recipes to develop a set of serving vessels. These food specific dishes allowed me to bring the recipes into form. Although I was short on time since the residency was only one month, I was able to organize a meal that brought together all the people who had helped me to come and eat with the international community of artist at Guldageraard. After the meal the dishes were give to the people who contributed to the development of the project.


The meal included: 


frikadeller | danish pork meatball


stegt flæsk | thick fried bacon


served with potatoes and persillesovs | parsley sause


æblekage | apple cake


hasselnød kage | hazelnut cake


lagkage | layerd birthday cake


kringle | prezel shaped pastry 


rugbrod | Rye bread


rabarbergrød  | rhubarb porridge with cream



My plan for the future life of this project is to revisit some of the vessels that I developed through this project. Thank you to everyone who made this project possible. To those who showed me so much kindness and generosity, I really appreciate you.

The final meal at Guldagergaard - International Ceramic Research Center, Denmark

A few of the dishes and food that I made for the meal.

Studio shot: gravy boats

Making Rugbrød a Danish rye bread with Bodil.

Traditional Danish smørrebørd, open faced sandwiches.

Bodil and I at her home in the Danish country side.

Royal Copenhagen china collection at the Grimmerhus Museum of Ceramic Art in Middelfart.

Nina Hole Fire Sculpture

 Christine Hansen |  Drøsselbjerg  Kirke

Visit to The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts on the Island of Bornholm.

Making Frikadeller, Danish pork meatball.

Making Æbleskiver with Sten.

Researching Danish cookbooks.

Friends:::: Caroline & Eszti

A big thank you to these lovely ladies!

The Relational Table & MILK/MILK a ROY G BIV Gallery

In April 2015, at ROY G BIV Gallery I had the opportunity to have my first somewhat solo exhibition outside of the university (it was really a 2-person show) but we each had a separate exhibition space. The whole weekend was fun and refreshing coming off of my MFA thesis show. My mom, sister Raquel, my little niece Reagan, and my good friend Kella all showed up to help make this show possible! I exhibited two pieces MILK/MILK was a one night event performed by my mother. She passed out two different whole milk samples one from an organic farm near Columbus and the other was the stock brand from Kroger. My mother grew up on a dairy farm and still drinks warm milk each night similarly to the fresh warm milk she would have drank directly from the cow. This always fascinated me so I worked together with my mom to create this piece.

The  primary piece was The Relational Table. The Relational Table is a project in shared eating that transforms the gallery into a place of gathering for an intimate meal to take place each day. Spanning 22 days, the course of the exhibition, it brings together residents of Columbus, Ohio. The project exists dually both in the gallery and the community. The table is the central meeting point in a chain reaction that began on the evening of Friday, April 3, 2015 with an inaugural meal between a guest and myself.

Each day a meal is shared with an invited guest of the guest from the preceding meal. Each person will share a total of two meals one as a guest and one as a host. A record of individuals who eat at the table will be documented through photographs on the wall of the gallery as the exhibition progresses.

Through the exchange of food the gallery functions as the site of shared meals. A journal acts as a recording between each participant passed along from one person to another. The journal is a written collection of stories that accumulate each day. It is absent from the exhibition space as it is shared only between those participating in the project. The Relational Table uses ceramic dishes to bring awareness to the connection that take place at the table, within the community, and in the city in which we all reside.

 MILK/MILK by Jeni Hansen Gard & Jackie Hansen

OSU MFA Blog

This year a few first year graduate students (Sa'dia Rehman and Jessie Horning) decided to start a blog for the art department to highlight the students, research, and over all the great things that are happening in everyone's studio. This week I was on the blog with photos of my studio and lots more.  Check it out at http://u.osu.edu/mfastudiotourblog/jeni-hansen-gard/.

Jeni Hansen Gard’s current work, Partake Columbus, engages local food vendors and the community through shared meals and conversation. Over the course of thirty-three days participants share daily meals on ceramic dishes made by the artist. Embedded in the glaze of these plates, bowls and cups is a map of Columbus, a symbol of the location that unites all of the participants.

Partake Columbus is on display in the 3rd Year MFA Thesis show from February 21 – March 21, 2015 at the Urban Art Space in downtown Columbus. Jeni Hansen Gard is a third-year MFA candidate in the area of Ceramics at The Ohio State University.

Final Thesis Update

My thesis show has come and gone. I feel some relief but I am still hard at work editing my thesis paper which is due at the end of the month. Below are a few pictures from the project and installation at Urban Arts Space.

Partake Columbus is a meal share. Focused on the city of Columbus, food, community, and our relationship to the food we eat and the people we share it with. Partake Columbus is a community-based project bringing together an individual from seven Columbus neighborhoods to participate in a meal share for one month.
Each participant has been given two handmade ceramic dish sets and committed to sharing a meal and using the dishes each day for the duration of the project from February 17th - March 21st, 2015. The project is recorded here on the group blog where each participant is documenting each meal with a photograph and a written reflection. Serving as a form of data collection recording what they chose to eat, where they eat, and with whom they eat.I believe that food is more then mere nourishment to our bodies. Food, eating, and the act of preparing meals are a vital part of life. There is symbolic meaning in a shared meal that goes beyond the object and consumption of food. I am interested in the meal, personal food choices, food as a form of communication, and the ceramic vessel as the transmitter and artifact. My work examines the life of food and people, the connection and cross over to consumption. Partake Columbus is about sharing meals, building community, and examining current food choices. Intended to raise questions in creating a culture of mindfulness in eating. You can view the project at partakecolumbus.wordpress.com

Thesis Update #2

Thesis is hard at least that is what I keep saying. My body is telling me to stop and slow down but the reality of the upcoming show is pushing me onward. I hurt everywhere, my fingers, every muscle, and especially my brain. Thank goodness for a husband who has been wholly supportive even during this most stressful time. He is walking through it with me holding me up when I need it, talking sense in to me when i've lost it, and rubbing my back at night so I can fall asleep. I think Forrest might deserve some kind of award for this as well. Maybe a second honorary degree?!?

My studio has been filled for the last month leaving little flex space to even put down my computer. Over break I made several slump moulds and extruder dies for my dishes. The process is simple but time consuming as is almost everything in ceramics. I start with basic slabs and I am printing my pattern in blue on the white porcelain body with thermofax and screen printing techniques. I then cut it to size with my templates and attach the extruded coils to form the edge of the vessels.

Even through the studio work has been stressful the project has been fun. It is hard for me to show to much excitement right now because the reality is I am still very tired. But I have enjoyed the process of developing this project and getting to know people in my Columbus community.

My thesis project came about a little late in the game. After encouragement from my thesis committee to do something in the gallery, to use the space, and make it happen there. I designed a project about the space. The space being Urban Arts Space part of OSU in the old Lazarus building downtown Columbus. I had to work at this gallery during my first year of graduate school and it was by far one of the hardest parts of my experience here, other than bullies, and being away from my husband for 2 years. The large building used to be a department store and it is not the home to 14 different organizations and businesses. My idea was to have one person from each entity come together to share a meal. This sounds simple but it was not. The building is large it was hard to find where each place even existed. Several were the Ohio Department of _____. And they don't even let you past the front desk. Hundreds of people enter the building each day but few ever enter the gallery.  I am not going into detail about this project because I had planned it well and I hope to execute it in the future at the right 'place'. The day before my thesis proposal was due in early December I received news I was NOT allowed under any circumstance to serve food in the gallery. 

If there is one thing I have learned in graduate school it is pick and choose your battles. So I left this one behind and decided to do something that I wanted to do. I started thinking about Columbus as the place and I decided to combine some of my past projects "The Dish Set Challenge's" together into a new piece about Columbus. I'll update you all soon on whats happening with the new project, Partake Columbus.

Beyond the Brickyard

Forrest and I are excited to announce that we will both be showing in Beyond the Brickyard at the Archie Bray Foundation! Forrest will be exhibiting Welcome Home (the hats) from his thesis exhibition and I will be showing portraits and plates from Project NOLA. It looks like it is going to be an excellent show!

Ceramic Growlers by Forrest Sincoff Gard

Forrest wrote his first article for Ceramics Monthly. Check it out in the January issue!  He has been working at CM as an assistant editor since June and it has been a great resource (and a blessing for my applications!) to be married to an awesome man :) Check it out below and get your copy here.

"Ideas are only the way into the work." -Rebecca Harvey

Project Nola in Ceramics Monthly Exposure

Ceramics Monthly covered Project Nola in the expose section this month! Yippee, I am celebrating the little victories in this time of chaos aka THEIS. You can still see the work in person through December 14, 2014 at the Ulrich Museum of Art in Wichita, Kansas.

On an extra positive note one of my best friends had her first feature in CM. Reading her article was a highlight in the December issue on functional discussions. Great job Lindsay- I am proud of you. Keep it up! -jeni

After Conscious Clay comes down Project NOLA will be heading to the Archie Bray Foundation's Beyond the Brick Yard Exhibition- where (after years of applying) Forrest and I will be showing our work for the first time! The exhibition will be open January 16- March 7, 2015 in the Bray North Gallery.

what does it take to make a thesis?

I have been working toward my thesis for 2.5 years. When I arrived here I had no idea what my thesis project would be or how it would come about. I was naive, young, and open to the possibilities of graduate school. I thought way to hard and I worked even harder. Now the question is where does that leave me?

Some might say I made too much work while others not enough. But it was in the process of making that led me here—to this moment before I begin my thesis work. It was each project building on the next, and each decision that brought me to the next collaboration, process, or project.

So here I am stuck in a drift that is taking me strait to my thesis. This drift isn't what I had imagined but it is in a sense why I am here. So that I can receive feedback and criticism, and take the leap into a career when I leave here. 

What is a drift you might ask? A drift, as I know it, is a huge pile of snow.  Drifts often formed in my driveway during my childhood. My parents lived on Lake Michigan and the lake effect results in enormous amounts of snow. The wind coming off the lake was intense and there were often snow drifts that were well above the height of my car that would take hours to dig out. I am thinking of this current moment in time as a drift because I feel a bit stuck in a drift so large is feels almost unmoveable but I know if I keep shoveling I will get through it.

To sum things up I had a magnificent thesis project one that I felt had (almost) every component that I felt was important from my years of study. Realizing now that it is largely my own fault but also things outside of my control that both wouldn't let it be and I moved forward to consider a new project that I would not have designed by my own.

Moving forward my thesis project is ________ (currently untitled- but I assure you it is coming soon). My thesis exhibition will take place at the OSU Urban Arts Space in the Lazarus building downtown Columbus Ohio. The project is aimed at bringing together a group of people that share the physical space within the Lazarus building. The Lazarus building is an old department store that was converted into work space and leased out to businesses. The walls create a barrier that prevents the many employees who enter the building each day from ever encountering each other. This project is a meal share that is designed to help those participating and those who view it to reconsider the space that is shared.

I am arranging for one participant to act as a liaison from each of the 14 different entities that rent space within the Lazarus building. These 14 people will come together to share a meal at the table within the gallery space. The meal and the dishes will be reflective of the building, the people, and a blend of personal food choices. 

Check back soon for a Thesis Update ^^^^^^^^

Apron Article-Ceramics Monthly November 2014

I teamed up with my great friend Lindsay Scypta to write our first article for publication in Ceramics Monthly. Lindsay and I love to make aprons (and ceramics of course!) The article serves as step-by-step instructions and also includes a few tips and tricks to make your apron extra fancy or simply efficient! Check out the 2014 November issue of CM for the article.