Meet Jennifer Keresztes

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Keresztes.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
From an early age, I knew I wanted to take a creative path. As a child, I had moved several times including across the country and overseas. I remember it didn’t matter where I was, I could spend many happy hours creating and making things…drawing, painting, building, sewing, calligraphy…I enjoyed it all! Recognizing I had a broad base of creative interests, I decided to pursue a degree in fine arts and design at UCLA where I could study a variety of areas of art including collage, printmaking, textiles, graphic design, industrial design, ceramics and animation. Also while there, I worked at a campus print shop and advertising department which led me to seek employment post-graduation into the then burgeoning field of computer-aided graphic design, advertising and print production where I worked for the next 15 years.

Later while raising two kids, I kept creative with some graphic projects and volunteering in art classes at their school as well as used my skills to help build a family music business. As that grew and the kids too, I yearned to get back to creating art that was more tactile and engaged more of my senses.

That’s the point in which I came across some inspiring artists working with encaustic or pigmented wax…a painting medium having ancient origins that consists of melted beeswax combined with pigment. I bought the medium, some tools and equipment and began exploring this exciting medium’s physical, textural and natural qualities in printed, painted and sculptural forms. Since then, I have taken encaustic workshops and art classes continuing my study and development of my encaustic and mixed media artwork. Also I have had several shows in a local gallery which provided wonderful opportunities to display and share my work in a community space.

In addition, I also joined a local ceramic studio where I have renewed that interest while learning and creating in a collaborative community environment…an aspect not present in my mostly solitary studio work. I’m finding this experience is yet another layer of enrichment to my growth as an artist while providing another natural and physical medium to explore.

Please tell us about your art.
Studying a variety of art forms has led me to be an artist that is multi-disciplinary by nature. And the combining, experimenting, and intermingling of techniques and materials are why my artwork is often process driven. It may start with an idea but goes through a series of steps, decisions and often some problem solving along the way. That is what I find most exciting about creating art and why too, I gravitate towards incorporating a medium like encaustic that undergoes a transformation or metamorphosis.

Using a heated palette, I melt the encaustic paint and manipulate it using brushes and various tools so it can be either printed to paper or used in a painted way whereby is it applied to a surface and fused using a heat gun or torch. After it cools, another layer can be applied, fused and repeated as desired. This medium is highly versatile and can be utilized to collage, transfer images, embed other materials, apply texture or be carve into…all techniques that also add another dimension to my mixed media work.

That artistic process (along with a medium that comes from nature) makes it a wonderful creative platform for the imagery I’m moved by…the beauty, patterns and visual textures found in the natural world. Represented on a micro-internal as well as external-environmental level, my nature abstractions and biomorphic compositions often explore the notions of nature’s beauty, growth, changes, frailty and destruction. Nature is an inspiration and also a concern and that’s why I have made it part of my practice to donate a portion of my art’s proceeds to organizations that work to protect and preserve the environment.

What do you think about the conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
Making a living as an artist is tough, though this digital age provides artists quick access to information, education, techniques and supplies as well as provide a network to connect to other artists and a means to promote and share their work. Los Angeles has an expansive array of artists and creative people. It is important that our large city has both online and physical spaces that they can share, collaborate and learn in. Supporting art education in schools at every level and in every neighborhood is vital to enriching our city and to providing a pathway for the next generation of artists and creative thinkers.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My artwork can be viewed on my website – www.jen-k-art.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jen-k-art.com
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credit:
Jennifer Keresztes

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