Artist Portfolio Magazine’s 10 Art Competition

Jennifer Dasani – Lansing, MI

I am a forty-four-year-old emerging artist from Lansing, Michigan. No formal education in art apart from high-school. I picked up many other skills by self-research and practice along the way, experimenting with Acrylic, watercolor, oil, and sketching, sew, scrapbooking, framing and some woodworking. Next, I join the U.S Army for 20 years of active service in 1998, traveling around the world, living in Missouri, Korea, Colorado, South Carolina, Alaska, Italy, and deployed twice to Iraq, and once to Afghanistan and working at several other Countries/Continents along the way such as Africa, Kirgizstan, Germany, and Kuwait. I continued throughout the years to practice painting, drawing and crafts. An appreciation for the beauty in nature has always been a dramatic passion within me. It wasn’t until 2016 after my brother passed away, that I began to really notice the little things and created a unique work of art through my eye for finding beauty in just about anything natural. I began to create nature setting using layers of glass, paint and just about any part of a plant, flower or tree I could dry out. The effects create shadows and realistic natural beauty. Traveling round the world has given me an opportunity to see more beauty than the average person may ever see. By creating this type of art, World beauty can be shared throughout society. I am excited to enter juried galleries around the Mid-West and find where “Art” leads me.
Artist Statement- Jay Dasani:
Art to me is the most important thing in life. Love is art. Music is art. Painting is art. Most everything in life is an art. Whether you are feeling it, seeing it, saying it, or hearing it. Art is everywhere. It’s just a matter of what art captures your heart more than all the others. -Maybe there isn’t just one.
I must take in all the beauty with my eyes, my ears, and my very soul. There is an energy that flows around each living thing, and when it begins to die, that energy begins to fade. When I see this happening, it hurts my soul with just as much strength as this “thing” that made my soul shake with the energy and beauty it held before. I must save this “thing”. I must make this “thing” beautiful again. I must make it everlasting and immortal. I must make sure that it isn’t forgotten and overlooked. This is what drives me to create my work. This is where my passion comes from.
For me, I love to create. I must create with my hands. I want to make use of things that others would not appreciate would it not be used to create something. I hope that when I create my art, that others may appreciate the work, the detail, and the beauty of all the “things”, the immortal “things” that came from the earth, assembled, for all to view.
I aspire to continue my art work, so that others may enjoy them. I would hope that my art would be a positive addition to our society, an example for our youth and a goal for them to reach for. Art- what a wonderful, wonderful “thing”.