Kristin Kest

The focus of my work has always been squarely located in the natural world. I’ve been an illustrator doing botanical work for over 30 years and in that time I have moved fluidly between science markets and product design, dropping into serious fine art painting with figurative and feminist themes. What holds all of these together is a penchant for storytelling with an understanding that the magic of the story doesn’t negate the real world. What I have found is that by exploring the real world with a keen observation, the inherent magic in it is revealed.

My ceramic work is an offshoot of the work I’ve done as a illustrator of the real and fantastic. Bas relief, in particular, scratches my itch for working in a pictorial space; it is another opportunity to tell a human story from the lens of my perspective. I have often wondered about the unique phenomenon that is Art, and humanity’s drive to create it, to have it. It seems to me that Art is just a wild spore, a seed of “the magic” which allows humans to be part of the living force of the natural world. We desire to connect, to feel awe, wonderment, and beauty about our very individual, yet shared human experiences and those feelings are what drive our definitively human existence. It is the artist’s job, then, to leverage open that door as wide as we can to whatever realm of magic we can see and to invite everyone in.

I lead a quiet life in the woods, in a 250 year old log house with my wife and 3 cats.