Jenny Keyser
Water and Jewelry
Every morning I sit here with my coffee. It is one of my favorite places. I watch as the light changes over the horizon and the dew dries. The quiet air moves slowly around me. There is nothing quite like seeing the horizon. It fills me with awe and grounds me at the same time.
Over the past few years I have been fascinated with the science of epigenetics and how art and environments can affect us. Through epigenetics we know that the expression of your DNA can be changed by your environment for better or worse. In an age of technology, fractured populations, war, pollution and global warming people are finding ways to “heal” themselves by changing their environment. In fact, in both South Korea and Japan scores of people go to forests to “bathe” and heal.
Recently, scientists have discovered that viewing art, like nature, has the power to create a similar healing environment. It is this quiet, healing space that I try to create with my abstract landscapes, an environment where epigenetic transformations can occur for the better.
As an award-winning, St. Augustine area artist I have been honored to have the opportunity to present my work and research at both the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference and the Art in Society Conference at UCLA. My art has been shown internationally in galleries and museums and has been acquired by the Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon.
My paintings consist of watercolor, colored pencil, acrylic paint and oil on archival paper or canvas. Recent shows include Works on Paper at the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts and Sciences as juried by Esther Adler curator at MOMA; Loss, Redemption and Grace at EBD4 in Atlanta; and Lon Art’s Sheroes Revoluciones London exhibition. Additionally, I am the Founder of the Mother Art: Revisited collective which has had recent shows in both London and Scotland. In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, I created a platform to provide live, on-line art instruction. I am currently teaching children through adults across the United States. My formal education includes a B.S. in Biology from Vanderbilt University, a certificate in Museum Studies from Northwestern University and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About Her Jewelry
Jenny created her first jewelry collection, Zhenya in 1997. The collection rapidly developed a boutique following and was sold at high-end stores across the United States, including Barney’s New York. Since then, her pieces have been shown in In Style Magazine, Glamour, Women’s Wear Daily and Mademoiselle magazine and have been worn by TV personality Martha Stewart among others. Additionally, Jenny’s work has been accepted into the teaching collection at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon and has been published in Lark Books’ 1,000 Beads.
Currently, Jenny’s collections include her Gold Kintsukuroi Collection, the Silver Standard Collection, the Bricolage Collection and Ardor. “The Bricolage Collection is among my favorites. Bricolage is French for “tinkering”. It is the coming together of a piece from things that happen to be available and is often the way I create. I take things from my life, the places I go, the things I see, a plant seed rethought and cast to become “Balance Earrings” or a piece of metal found on the street ends up rivoted into a silver bracelet. “These bits and pieces inspire me and are treasures waiting to be transformed.”
I have been making art for as long as I can remember. It pulls us in, pushes us out and can even heal. Please feel free to email me with any inquiries.