Meet Jennifer Kohnke
Stephanie, me & Grace, circa 1987
Kaitlyn & Bella
I've been contributing my editorial illustrations to the Voice of the People section of the Chicago Tribune since 2004. I'm also a syndicated illustrator with Tribune Media Services (since 2005). Now, after my very successful and relentless pestering of poor Barrie Maguire, I'm very happy to be one of the artists featured on newsart.com.
I grew up on the Northwest side of Chicago, the youngest daughter of Leonard and Genevieve Kohnke. My sisters, Madeline and Joan, endured many years living under the same roof with their bratty younger sister, and still they're two of my closest friends. They must think I'm OK too, because they annually leave their husbands behind and join me in New York City to play. All three Kohnke girls spent 12 of our most impressionable younger years in the Chicago Catholic school system. Therefore, I still fight the urge to genuflect (or duck?) at the site of a nun.
At 12, when my Dad realized that I could create a drawing that actually looked like what I said it was supposed to be, he sent me to the Young Artists Studio of the School of the Art Institute. That was in 1967. I received my BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. In between those years, I had two terrific daughters: Grace and Stephanie. In 2002, Grace gave me the two best granddaughters in the world: Kaitlyn and Bella.
My influences: Edward Gorey, Art Spiegelman, other Mad Magazine illustrators, and the editorial cartoons of Dr. Suess.
To see more work, visit either www.jenniferart.com or www.portfolios.com/jenniferkohnke
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Joan, Madeline and me