The Artist Portrait Project

"Jennifer Spencer has created a very moving, compassionate, and celebratory series of portraits of a generation of tenacious San Diego artists. These creative men and women have beaten the attrition rate that so often snares artists in mid career and thereby enriched our community immeasurably through their profound influence as teachers and creators."

-Hugh M. Davies, PhD, Director Emeritus, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego



"Jennifer Spencer, because of her dedicated work with the umbrella arts organization COVA, is beloved by many San Diego Artists. These artists make up the bulk of the portraits in this book and what is interesting is how she has continued to learn about and support them. This is shown not only in the words that accompany the images but in the images themselves. They tell us more than words could ever express. She has caught a mood of a time and so these photographs, which are works of art themselves, will also be an important historical record of this visual arts community."

-Patricia Frischer, founder and coordinator of San Diego Visual Arts Network



"Tucked into this wonderfully realized selection of 50 artists, there is a 51st: Jennifer Spencer is in every image. She is reflected in the generosity she gives the sitters, who are seen with respect and affection. Her camera distance, little more than arm's length, shows her intimacy. That her subjects open to her identifies her warmth, and she allows the artist's work to be as present and speak as eloquently as do their faces."

-Arthur Ollman, former director of MOPA (Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego), San Diego State University, head of the School of Art and Design



"For the past 10 years, Jennifer Spencer has taken intimate photographs of a cross section of the most influential mid-career and established artists working in the San Diego area. These photographs, which are presented in The Artist Portrait Project: Fifty San Diego Artists 2006-2016, are themselves works of art in that they reflect not only the unique personality of each artist, but also their diverse bodies of work. Jennifer's portraits document an important period of time in the long history of San Diego as a world-class center for art, and remind us of the numerous accomplished artists we are lucky to call our own."

-Lawrence J. Poteet, Art Collector, Ablon, Lewis, Bass & Gale, LLP