Partying with Jenny: Local artist, teacher combines visual, performing arts

Chinchilla resident Jenny Mathews has always loved the arts. She teaches elementary art to students from kindergarten to 4th grade at Frances Willard Elementary School. She guides painting workshops at music shows. She always wanted to go back to singing. That’s when she started The Jenny Party.

After doing live painting at festivals and events, Jenny decided to add singing while she simultaneously paints on stage. She allows her students to paint and dance with her.

“It’s neat being up on stage and just having all the kids glowing with paint and just dancing around and letting go,” she said.

Jenny performed The Jenny Party in San Francisco, Asbury Park in New Jersey, and the 55th anniversary celebration of Woodstock. The Jenny Party is affiliated with the Karnival of the Arts in Kempton, which is geared toward visual arts and performers.

“Basically, the Jenny Party is turning into this inclusive celebration of just letting go, and being wild, and forgetting about your problems,” she said. “Everybody’s included of all ages, all sizes, colors and creeds.”

Jenny wants to perform all around the world, including at weddings. She enjoys performing covers from Blondie, Madonna and Kim Wilde, to name a few. She plans to write her own songs as well. She hopes to create upbeat disco songs that are appropriate for kids and adults so she can sing them at her school. She adds her flute playing to her repertoire. Playing this instrument since the fourth grade, she performed all over Europe including Venice, Paris and Holland.

“It’s really nice to get that aspect back in there,” she said. “It’s really gaining recognition because of the flute. It’s really exciting.”

Jenny is starting to incorporate other musicians. She currently has a bongo player in her act.

“I just want to get as many different people up there performing with me in different ways as possible because I think people want to feel seen,” she said. “I like to bring other people into the spotlight because it’s about everybody. I’m a firm believer that everyone is an artist, and they just need to have the right environment to create it.”

Jenny grew up in a musical environment. Both of her parents are musicians. Her father, Wayne Mathews, was frontman in a four-piece band called Crayon. He played at high school dances and large clubs during the 1970s. He taught Jenny to sing in three-part harmony when she was two years old. Many of her relatives on her mother’s side of the family are successful musicians. One of her aunts was in The Philadelphia Orchestra. One of her cousins and her partner are in a duo called Striking Matches, in which they wrote music for the TV show “Nashville.” Jenny’s fiancee, Jonathan YonKondy, who earned his master’s degree in cinematography at the University of Southern California, makes local films. He is currently making a movie called “Rock n Roll vs. The Invisible Bees.”

Jenny, who was born and raised in Milford, studied art education at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. She returned north to earn her master’s in art education at Marywood University. Her original focus was ceramics, which led her to her passion in figure drawing.

“That changed my life a lot, too, because drawing the human form and painting the human form just helped me so much in my own artwork,” she said.

Jenny believes in facilitating creativity among her students. She hopes to someday teach future art educators at the college level.

Jenny performs at the Circle Drive-in Flea Fair on Sundays.

“It has the best dancers; however, my favorite dancers are my students,” she said. “Nobody grooves like a first grader! It’s really cool seeing people from all over the world dancing and grooving. It’s so much fun, and people just love it.”