(The Artist by Denise Kester)
Printmaker Denise Kester has seen a few hard times, yet she insists on maintaining creativity while riding the roller coaster of life.
Kester’s work is featured this month at Sisters Gallery and Frame Shop. She’ll be on hand for the Fourth Friday Artwalk on May 22, from 4-7pm. She will also speak to the topic, Art, Hope, and Important Things to Remember on Saturday, May 23 at 4pm in the gallery.
“It’s essential that we stay creative when life is hard around us,” she says. “I will be discussing what I do to keep making art when I am devastated by the world around me. I’ll share my list of important things for creative people to remember.”
Speaking as a veteran artist, she acknowledges, “This is the time we are in. There is no way around it, we must go through it, but we can choose how we go through it.”
But how can we hold onto hope, if we feel sad and discouraged?
“This is what I do to keep myself from falling into the abyss of worry and sorrow. I create beauty as best as I can. I surround myself with kind people and nature. I meditate on the interconnectedness of life. I hug my grandchildren. I do art. I walk. I listen to what my dog tells me, and what I hear from the birds and the trees.”
Here’s how Kester says we can fill our lives with beauty. “Stay with the trust of your heart. Don’t give up on your love of this world or give in to fear, hopelessness, and small-mindedness. Create what your heart knows is true.”
Denise Kester is an artist, writer, and teacher living in Ashland, Oregon. She specializes in monoprint and monotype viscosity printing as well as multi-media, drawing, painting and handmade books. She uses monoprinting with lithography inks to create art.
She is author of Drawing on the Dream, a book that explores her process and revelations about art and printmaking, with beautiful illustrations and practical guidance and personal experience through art and life. More information is available at her website, drawingonthedream.com.
Sisters Gallery and Frame Shop is located at 222-C West Hood Avenue and is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am-5pm. Artwalk hours are Friday, May 22, from 4-7pm. Kester will be on hand during gallery hours on May 23, prior to giving her talk.