Jennifer Maestre incorporates brightly colored pencils to build complex sculptures inspired by the vulnerability of sea urchins. Her choice of materials include perfectly sharpened pencil tips, spent eraser ends, and blunt pencil ends. She cuts these ordinary art materials into small sections and drills holes through the sides, then runs a thread through the center sewing them together with a beading technique called the peyote stitch. She is able to create organic shapes with alluring textures that both draw the viewer in and remind us of the fragility of the ocean creatures she has so distinctively interpreted.
