I have admired the work of Jennybird Alcantara since I first stumbled across her website in 2005. Even then, her enigmatic and thought-provoking paintings and sketches explored the darker realms of human nature. It’s hard not to mistake the artist when encountering one of her many provocative works set in subversive, mythological worlds. I would love to step inside the fantastic world of Jennybird’s visualizations of curious creatures, animals and hybrids—so beautiful, so mysterious, so strange. One can only imagine the amount of time and effort that goes into creating the succession of fantastic scenarios.
Jennybird’s fondness for the world of the imagination led to a serious interest in art, and she went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute, receiving a BFA degree in 1995. She describes her art as inspired by “fairytales and fables, mythology, the flora and fauna of the natural world and freaks of nature, melancholy and classical music, Victorian customs, folk art, costuming, creepy religious statues and paintings, symbolism, carnivals, trips down memory lane, broken dolls and objects out of place. As well as all the beautiful and sad things that could not exist one without the other, life and death and the veil in between.”
Key takeaway: Jennybird is one of a kind and we need more like her!
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