Paula Xiberras
Jennifer Skelly’s surname gives a hint to this young lady’s pursuits. ‘Skelly is the anglicised version of the Gaelic name ‘o scholidhe or scolaire’ one translation being student’ and Jennifer has always been a student of life with a thirst for finding her own niche. Jennifer now finds herself moving from student to scholar and educator with her foray into writing and illustrating her book ‘A Compendium of Collective Nouns’. For those that are unfamiliar with the term, Collective nouns are ‘nouns that denote a group’.
Jennifer is a Tassie girl, born in Devonport and eventually leaving Tassie to spend some years on the mainland in Melbourne. It was there she met her husband, a photographer, who looking for a change happily settled in Tasmania with Jennifer where they both pursue artistic careers. Jennifer did begin a Fine Arts degree and later a degree in education but did not pursue either, instead she went on to complete a degree in Political Science and Japanese language followed by stints working in a finance company and as a graphic designer, editing brochures. Jennifer also dabbled in music event management but it wasn’t long before she found her true niche.
It was by accident Jennifer found herself become a successful illustrator and educator in her new book ‘Compendium of Collective Nouns’. The book has been a great success with all bookshops in Hobart stocking it and Jennifer herself is in demand as a speaker at schools. Jennifer who is a naturally quiet person wasn’t expecting to be speaking in front of audiences but she approached it with commitment and enthusiasm as she has approached all of her eclectic endeavours.
‘A Compendium of Collective Nouns’ is a quirky and original book embellished by Jennifer’s excellent illustrations. Jennifer explains the first recorded edition of collective nouns was probably written by Dame Juliana Barnes, a prioress who has the distinction of being the first woman to write a book about fishing. Dame Juliana’s ‘Book of St Albans’ which was created to catalogue collective terms for the sporty pastimes of the time, such as the 3 ‘h’s’, hunting, hawking and heraldry and the later addition, angling.
Over time many have people used their imagination to create collective nouns and so we have many different collective terms for the same animal. Some of the terms have stuck, others have disappeared but among those that remained there are some gems, brilliant examples of alliteration and creativity including ‘flamboyance of flamingos’, ‘Crash of rhinos,’ ‘Constellation of starfish’ and the very appropriate ‘Gulp of swallows’.
Jennifer’s book introduces collective nouns but doesn’t analyse them, instead it portrays a gorgeous, visual display of the collectives. For someone who didn’t believe she was a great artist Jennifer’s art is amazingly authentic . Jennifer sources the images for her art from stock photos on google images.
It hasn’t always been animals for Jennifer, she has also created a compendium series of old cars and even one on kitchen appliances!.
Jennifer visits the mainland every few months for her work and most recently back home Jennifer has been working on a ‘doodle illustration’ of famous Tasmanians such as Errol Flynn and Ricky Ponting and is surprised that many people don’t know they, and others she illustrates,are Tasmanian!
With the success of the first volume of ‘A Compendium of Collective Nouns’ Jennifer hopes to complete a second volume with another 50 images, which was her original intent, but eventually she realised 100 images were too much for one book and so broke it up into a more manageable project.
You can buy ‘A compendium of Collective Nouns’ from Jennifer’s web site
http://redparka.blogspot.com.au/
or at Salamanca where she has a stall every week.
