Jennifer was born in 1950 on a Marine Base in Oceanside California, after living in the desert near Bakersfield her parents moved north to Napa Valley. After she graduated in 1968 from Calistoga High School, she worked briefly as an Au pair in England, then hitchhiking around Europe. Returning to the states in 1969 a young married mother her and her new husband lived a few years in Florida then moved to South Carolina. She began a formal education on art in 1980 at Winthrop Collage and continued learning at art workshop at Myrtle Beach studying with top artists from around the country.