JENNIFER YORK, née JEN SWEARINGTON grew up in rural Indiana on land that was once her great-grandfather’s farm. She has been drawing as long as she can remember. Mentored by her artist aunt Kelly Hoernig, Jen knew by the age of twelve that she wanted to become an artist. She studied fine art and art history, earning a BFA from Pratt Institute in 1997 and an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2000, then spent one year as an Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

Jen settled in Asheville, NC and in 2003 juried into the Southern Highland Craft Guild and founded Jennythreads Studio. She and her assistants worked together to cut, sew, dye, print, and finish each Jennythreads item in-house, each to Jen’s original designs and handprinted with her unique illustrations and print patterns. Jennythreads Studio produced about 2000 finished pieces per year, selling retail and fine art and craft fairs, and wholesale to boutiques and galleries. Jennythreads has been featured in Asheville’s Mountain XPress, craft trade magazine Niche, Belle Armoire, and got a mention in the New York Times, among dozens more accolades. But Jen takes pride that countless stylish women continue to love, wear and collect her Jennythreads pieces.

In 2013, her comprehensive how-to book Printing on Fabric: Techniques with Screens, Stencils, Inks and Dyes was published by Lark Crafts.

In March 2020, Swearington relocated to the South Carolina coast and continues her creative journey among the tidal marshlands of James Island and Folly Beach, South Carolina. She was a 2021 Gibbes Museum Visiting Artist, with her solo exhibition “New Histories,” followed by two more solo exhibitions “Estuary Blues” at the Myrtle Beach Art Museum and “Constructed Realities” at the Museum of Art- DeLand (Florida), both in 2023. In November 2022, Jen married Sam York and now goes by Jennifer York.

Listen to Jen tell her story of craft fairs and paying off student loans on NPR's Markeplace Money.

Watch Jen’s interview with Fox News 24 about her art and artist residency at the Gibbes Museum.