My name is Jennifer DeSantis. You can call me LadyJennD.
I am a mixed media collage artist. I consider myself a visual DJ. A DJ (re)mixes sounds to create new music, I take samplings of imagery and text and combine them, mesh them, and meld them, creating imaginative visual realms. Bits and pieces of random media become my greater message, my “song”. I take things people normally overlook and layer on imagination, depth, and sub-text and have been fervently creating mixed media collage artwork for about 13 years.
Let’s flash back to 2010. My work begins out of a necessity to do something healthy with my mind and hands while recovering from an addiction. I find myself drawn to collage, and this is not a first for me. A TIME magazine looks like a familiar friend. Rummaging through the pages, I notice the feel of the paper between my fingers, and my heart beats faster as certain words and images scream to be cut out to add to my “art-senal”. Soon thereafter, I scour thrift shops and yard sales for collage ephemera. I realize how much I love not only the feel of vintage and antique paper, but the scents of the past also awaken my imagination. I want to reimagine these elements and give them a new life, much like I am yearning for a personal re-birth after battling these demons that have been occupying my life and mind for nearly a decade. Creation out of destruction is the modus operandi and is being expressed now in a healthy way through collage.
I go to the library and borrow books on mixed media collage techniques and begin my journey of tearing paper and layering washes of paint to create busy backgrounds with little thought and lots of intuition. The final step is discovering a perfect focal point which is usually a female archetype emerging from somewhere wiser and stronger. I am seeking order in the chaos through this process.
I continue to create work using these techniques. However, over the past 5 years or so, my approach to collage begins to embrace more negative space, as well as a surrealist abstract style of, well, I suppose, portraiture. I am finding that through this process, I am creating order out of chaos.
Botanicals dominate my current work, as the symbolism for each individual component is utterly fascinating. I continue creating archetypes of people coming out of their shells, transforming into wiser, kinder, more peaceful characters in life… many who are growing through difficulties. The works are created to invite you into your own psyche and heal these tender parts. Some call this shadow work. Collage continues to be a source of healing for me, and my goal is to pass that on to the viewer. I aim to inspire the viewer to dig deep, find joy, affirm that they are important, to inspire them to follow their dreams, and to gain wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
I have taken the leap to live my dream, pursuing this artform full time, as of May 2021. I have been experimenting and adding augmented reality to my portfolio as well as immersing in apparel design. I currently have prints and other items in various local galleries and shops, and exhibit in various pop-up events in and around the city, as well as online.
You can find me working and exhibiting in the heart of downtown Albuquerque in my studio at the Mothership Alumni.
Past awards and publications include earlier work published in Renee’ Rongen’s book “Fundamentally Female”, 2012, work published in Jennifer Anne Greene’s book “Love Lost”, and the Jerry Goldstein Award for my piece “Covid Queen Bee”, 2021.
I am honored to have my work in private collections all over the world.
