Jennifer Gooch grew up and lived much of her life in the suburbs of Dallas.
Her superior character is the product of being raised by her single father, a young ex-GI pothead who later found answers in Southern fundamentalist Christian religion. Other fond memories include trailer parks, a severe sinus infection at the age of 4 from the sponge of a pink hair roller mysteriously lodged in her nose, stray-cats, nomadism, roly-polies, social anxiety, and ringworm.
Her career as a visual artist started early. As a child she was obsessed with legos and the Etch-a-Sketch Animator. She enjoyed sewing her own "dolls", or modifying ones given to her with well-intention. A doting aunt once gifted her with drawing lessons from a woman who specialized in paintings of pensive Native Americans that were sold at the local strip-mall gallery.
Searching for an incongruously classy pastime, she began playing violin at the age of eleven and passionately dedicated herself to it through the first two years of college. After developing severe performance anxiety in music school, she bravely quit playing all together.
With her dreams of a music career dashed, she turned to the solace of art.
After 28 years in North Texas, she now resides in Pittsburgh where she is working on her MFA in studio art at Carnegie Mellon University. She is enjoying it there, but bemoans the dearth of Mexican food and the general lack of knowledge of the term "backslider".
She also indulges an alter ego as a banjo-playing singer.
