Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennyfer Mancino.
Hi Jennyfer, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I graduated from Rollins College in 2005 and after the birth of our first child I opened a wedding cake bakery in Maitland. Our work received local and national recognition and I received OBJs 40 Under 40 award, It was really successful, but the schedule and pressure weren’t great for family life so I closed the bakery in 2016.
In 2017 I took a job with a wedding friend illustrating custom chalk boards, and that was my first job as an actual artist. Looking back though, cakes were such an amazing training ground. I learned about color theory, sculpture, composition and making flowers out of gumpaste..I’ve always said that some of the best, most skilled artists in the country work in cake.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being an artist isn’t for the faint of heart. Even just telling strangers what you do for a living “I am an artist” takes a certain amount of boldness. The industry has a high barrier to entry because people LOVE the work, get paid more the longer they do it, and very few ever fully exit the market. New artists need to have an enormous amount of resolve to make it to that place.
I think the trope of a tortured artist isn’t going away anytime soon. There is something insane about having your entire identity represented in your work, putting it out there for the world to see and having people judge it. Add in the social media aspect and others valuing your work by likes/views which is entirely controlled by a fickle algorithm that mainly caters to superficial flash…. and you’ve got some mental health trappings. Cal Newport said “the internet doesn’t reward deep work”, and I try to remember that when posting something I love and have worked hard on.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a painter focusing on florals and Florida botanicals. My very first project is still my most popular work. My late grandfather, asked me to paint him oranges for his living room. Literally every style and medium was on the table and I gradually widdled it down to slow drying acrylics on wood. That first project had so much heart in it and I’m grateful for my grandfathers prompt to help me find myself as an artist.
How do I chose what to paint? It sounds hippie but I paint what makes me happy because it will probably make others happy too..
My largest project to date is a mural in the Lake Nona Town Center. I painted my normal size and they took a scan and enlarged it to almost 30ft! I
What were you like growing up?
I was a happy kid.
I grew up in a single parent home, and I spent a lot of time at the Downtown YMCA with my best friend. My mom worked for Disney which was a major perk for a kid!
My middle school art teacher Ms Busby encouraged me in a way that stuck.
My junior year of high school I was an exchange student in France where I learned to cook and traveled a lot.
Art was always a hobby but I never considered it a career path after I got a “B” in the only art class I took in college.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.JennyferMancino.com
- Instagram: @JennyferMancino
- Facebook: @JennyferMancinoFineArt
