Company Background:
WINGIN’ IT
began in 2003 as a subscription-based newsletter
to promote the art and interests of Jacqueline Ernst and publicize
events at Pig Wings & Promises, her studio and showroom. Ernst’s
background in copywriting and graphic design quickly infused her
informative articles about art history with interactive visuals
that increasingly featured hand productions like pop ups, cut out
reveals, intricate folds, and moving parts. Her quarterly releases
were published in limited editions of 100. The depth of Jacqueline’s
research also increased as history articles lengthened into 40-page
illustrated monographs. Still the subscribers’ playground grew to
include templates and instructions for making art projects Jacqueline
designed to inspire better understanding of the subjects she addressed.
As Jacqueline’s repertoire of published monographs increased to
4 Volumes of 12 issues each, the publication’s name became a recognized
imprint of Pig Wings & Promises. WINGIN’
IT
continues to evince Ernst’s natural curiosity, insight, humor, and
story-telling skills to convey the History of Art as she reveals
the Art of History through innovative, often sculptural, illustrated,
hand bound monographs. Instead of an overwhelming and stressful
quarterly release schedule, each technically challenging, hand made
edition is delivered as completed. Perfection and hand production
takes as long as it takes. Subscribers receive a total of 4 issues
whose entertainment value, attention to detail, quality craftsmanship,
and yet more complex hand production have become a hallmark of the
WINGIN’ IT
experience. Subscribers now consider themselves investors in an
evolving enterprise dedicated to delivering focused, in-depth studies
that are intimately engaging, visually compelling, and technically
masterful contributions to the fine art of book making.
Company Mission Statement:
Explore the History
of Art. Discover the Art of History.
WINGIN’
IT's
mandate affirms the importance of history and literary pursuits
through informative, entertaining, inspiring and innovative hand
bound monographs by artist and author Jacqueline Ernst. The publisher
strives to meet the discerning expectations of Artist Book Collectors
through high quality craftsmanship, depth of research, literary
excellence, and innovative design.
Company Principal:
Artist and Author, Jacqueline Ernst, is publisher and principal contact. Visitors to her busy
studio and showroom, Pig Wings & Promises, soon fall under the spell of her ‘can-do’ attitude and whimsical humor.
Here is a woman who dances
with dogs, believes pigs fly, paints with clothes dryer lint, and advises corporate
executives on producing their print, radio, and outdoor advertising campaigns.
Jaki is a native of the San Francisco Bay area (b. 1950). Her formal education focused on art history
and creative writing (Universita Pera Stranieri, Perugia, Italy and University of California at Santa Barbara),
augmented by marketing and interior design through a full scholarship to Bauder College for Women, Sacramento, California).
Twenty-five years as a copywriter, graphic designer, and agency principal serving major corporations including Acuson,
Advanced Micro Devices, Monsanto, Syntex Labs and Almaden Vineyards, coincided with exhibitions and sale of illustrative
fiber art throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ernst was represented by Contemporary Artisans Gallery, San Francisco,
and to the trade by Art Showplace, Seattle, Washington during the 1980s when craftspeople struggled to be recognized alongside fine artists.
The turning point in Jaki’s career came with the discovery that her illustrated, hand-made books
were part of a long and venerable history of collaborations between artists, authors, printers,
and binders supported by individual and institutional collectors. Her needlecraft, graphics,
writing, and watercolor illustration merged into a unified art form recognized as Artist Books.
Ernst’s atelier and showroom with a winged dancing pig as its logo opened in 1986 as a statement that,
against serious odds, she had finally found her métier. Exhibitions of her Artist Books ensued, followed with
representation by Illahe Studios and Gallery, Ashland, Oregon, until the owner retired in 2015.
Ernst continues to refine her passion for writing and illustrating books and keeps her dancing pigs
airborne by actively exceeding expectations of her subscribers and expanding her audience.
When not making art, researching history, and writing, Ernst is an accomplished West Coast Swing dancer
who enjoys reading and traveling with her sketch journal
Artist’s Statement:
Jacqueline Ernst’s work incorporates traditional
and nontraditional materials and book forms. Her unique and limited
editions are often sculptural delights in which stories are told
through a volume’s shape, materials, and layout of text and illustrations.
Subscription-based, hand bound monographs published under the WINGIN’
IT
imprint unite her literary and design skills with her passion for
researching obscure aspects of history. Entertainment value, quality
materials, masterful word craft and labor intensive hand production
are hallmarks of Ernst’s Artist Books.
|