Born in Brooklyn, NY, Jaynie Crimmins did much of her growing up in a working class Queens neighborhood. On her bedroom wall was a framed Maio print. In Junior High School, the 1879 painting Joan of Arc by Jules Bastien-Lepage, at the Metropolitan Museum, somehow made her believe she was destined to be involved in art. In High School on Long Island, she hung out in the art room and her fate was sealed.
Jaynie graduated with a BS in Art Education from Buffalo State College. She earned her MA in Art Education from the College of New Rochelle in the evening, while teaching art full time to students who were in long and short term residential facilities. In graduate school, she also studied Art Therapy and became fascinated in the healing and restorative qualities of art. As an art teacher, Jaynie was committed to guiding students in the creation of art that expressed deep emotional content about personal or societal issues.
Jaynie taught art for over 20 years in New York State public schools while raising a family in the Hudson Valley of NY. She was fascinated by curriculum design as well as art’s authentic connections to other content areas and presented at national, state and regional conferences.
In 2003, two unique experiences - one in a creative workshop in Beacon, NY and the other in a therapeutic group exercise - changed the course of her work’s focus. The workshop began her process of dialoguing with materials as a creative process and therapy led to the use of relinquished materials.
The culmination of these experiences has led her to create with found and reclaimed materials, conveying both personal and current issues.
After moving to Atlanta with her husband in the fall of 2007, Jaynie began pursuing art full time.
Currently she serves on the board of the Atlanta Collage Society and mentors a young woman from Burundi through Refugee Family Services in partnership with the Circle of Sisters. In 2010, Jaynie was invited to judge the statewide Georgia PTA Reflections visual arts program.
