Denise Kester’s Artwork Draws on the Dream for our 2022 Symposium

“The Caretaker of the Precious” by Denise Kester

Our thanks to Denise Kester for sharing her artwork with us for our 2022 Symposium, “Hearing the Invisible: Lessons from Sentient Beings and Inter-related Ecosystems.” Our focus is on connections and relationships among people, animals, and the green world. Denise’s monoprint “The Caretaker of the Precious” (2001) beautifully conveys the intention and spirit of our program, as does her poem that accompanies the piece:

She says it is the small things that matter.

She says it is the life force of the unseen and

the vulnerable that hold our world

together by their fragile threads.

She says these things are precious to me.

I will care for them.

 

Denise is a full-time artist in Ashland, Oregon. She is author of the book “Drawing on the Dream.” She specializes in monoprint and monotype viscosity printing, as well as drawing and painting, based in part on her dreams and intuition. Denise teaches a variety of workshops on the creative process, including printmaking, bookmaking, surface design, collage, and block printing.

She says of her work, “I draw from the dream and the dream draws from me. The stories and the art I reach for are also reaching for me. Together in partnership we create a visual story that is relevant to me and also to the global community. I explore the connection and interconnection with the universe through art and dreams.”

Check out Denise’s interview with Oregon Art Beat to see the behind-the-scenes creative process that results in her colorful images of animals and nature. And see more of her work on her website, Denise Kester: Drawing on the Dream.