Jennifer Winkler

About the artist:

I have been professionally painting for many years, beginning with commissioned portraits way back in high school. In college my concentration switched from painting to sculpture, specifically lost-wax aluminum casting and steel fabrication. Throughout college and in the years after I won several awards and art competitions with my work. Since then I have worked as a sculptor for a water park feature manufacturer, sculpting their life-size prototypes. From there I worked as a sign painter, and then as a muralist and figure painter for the world’s largest wooden carousel manufacturer.

Because of my work for the carousel company, my paintings can be viewed in multiple states and countries—you may have even seen or rode on one of those very carousels. One of my favorite things is catching glimpses of those same carousels in movies with carousel scenes. Beginning a week after my carousel days ended in 2014, I began my teaching career as a middle and high school art teacher.

In the years since then, I have expanded the traditional art program in my school to one of the most unique and advanced in the nation. I have added furnace glassblowing and torchwork glass, in addition to laser-cutting, plastic and ceramic 3D printing, as well as traditional stoneware pottery and two-dimensional arts.

All of these advancements in my classroom were driven by student wishes and dreams and becuase I listened to those students and made their dreams happen, they nominated my for Ohio Teacher of the Year. I am proud to say I earned the distinction of District 11 Ohio Teacher of the Year and Top 4 Finalist for 2025 Ohio Teacher of the Year. I was also selected as a 2025 FFT Fellow and subsequently traveled to Iceland to complete professional development studies there in the summer of 2025.

I completed recent commissions for the City of Ashland, Ohio in 2024 and Mohican State Park in 2025 and am open to new commissions in painting, ceramics, glass, and metalwork.