At play with Mannequin head
 
The Landscape of Flesh and Emotion

 
I believe for a person to truly feel a painting, an artist needs to be a fearless seeker of truth. To reveal the honesty of emotion within ones subject. When I paint I try to feel the emotions at its deepest level, then allow those feelings to merge with the pigments on my brush and seep into the surface of my work. In this way, I believe people go beyond simply seeing my work, but instead they feel it. Allowing it to trigger their own life memories. Thus the viewer and the subject morph into something new on an organic level.
 
I seldom touch on happy times. To paraphrase Tolstoy, 'all happy people are the same.' What truly makes us individuals is how we feel as we pursue or loose love. Our greatest works in art, music, cinema have to due with longing for love, and pursuit for that person who turns our world inside out. The flip side of that is when the story takes that tragic turn and we are moved to attempt to reconcile or regain love first gained then lost. Within this realm each person is governed differently my the mind, heart and soul. Often these three elements of the self are at odds regarding how to best achieve the end goal—to taste love one more time.

 
Duane Kirby Jensen is a painter and a poet. He was inspired to paint as a child while he watched his grandmother and grandaunt paint scenes of their  Stanwood, WA community. He comes from a long line of painters, photographers, carvers, inventors and storytellers. 

As a poet, he has seen his work published in six chapbooks, and a variety of other publications, both in print and on-line. Since 1990 he has read and continues to read at numerous venues throughout the northwest.

During the 1990’s  he published Everett’s Independent Voice (an arts and entertainment magazine) and The Drifter: A  Poetry Journal. He also coordinated the Mill Town Poets open-mic. Since September 2013, he has been the host of Everett Poetry Nite that meets every Thursday night.

His work evokes those places which linger beneath the surface underscoring the narrative of being, the fragility of identity, the gravity of emotion and the ease in which it can be lost.
He does this through a mixture of ‘magical realism’ and what he refers to as ‘emotional realism.’  He has been called an ‘outsider artist.’

He received the  2013 Mayor’s Arts Award for Artistic Excellence & Contribution to Everett’s Cultural Vitality.

Duane Kirby Jensen is an Everett, WA based poet and artist. 


 
*** For a list of exhibits and publications please see News, Notes & Articles.

Photo by Gary Wade
© 2012 Photo by Gary Wade

 


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