“After working with wooden quilts my reflective journey evolved into a fascination with commercial beverage cans and their identifying brand designs. Finding one many years ago near a dumpster in the back of a mall was the key. The intense light reflected from its metal caught my attention” says JFHooker.

Though she did not begin working with the medium right off, its memory was stored in her mind to be referenced in the future. In her own words the vision “would not stay quiet.”

A mentor had at one time encouraged her to return to her roots and dig deeper into the forgotten commonplace objects “hidden in plain view” that surrounded her growing up in Texas. This would inform the body of her future work, from wooden quilts to “family boxes”, and most recently the aluminum “glyphs.” Clearly the name suggests hieroglyphs, an apt connection to perhaps be deciphered by some archeologist in the distant future. “Never have I ceased to be amazed at the sight of markings on old crumbling walls, graphics gone bad and partly washed away, only small historical specks of a communication long forgotten” FJHooker affirms. “These cans are marks and forms that I rescue from oblivion. Inspired by tradition I improvise with new materials.”

Once she began work on them she found that the sparkling quality of the aluminum furnished her with a new vibrant palette. “I began cutting and splicing different parts of the cans to build interlocking forms that I have named “glyphs” FJHooker explains. “Each can I select has its own language. My role is to listen and give the reassembled amalgam a visual voice.”