Under Our Feet, by Keersten Jensen

Opening reception for Under Our Feet, artwork by Keersten Jensen. Exhibit runs from November 14–December 26. Artist's Statement: “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden We are very good at looking ahead, looking up, and looking for something extraordinary. Painting has taught me to look down and around—to pay attention to what is already here. Nature rewards that kind of attention. A familiar mountain changes completely when the evening light hits it. Wildflowers appear beside a road and are gone a few weeks later. A garden grows, blooms, fades, and begins again. None of these things are particularly unusual, and perhaps that is what makes them so easy to overlook. I paint landscapes and flowers because they continually remind me to notice. Nature teaches patience without saying a word. It shows us that growth takes time, that rest is part of the process, and that beautiful things do not need to last forever to matter. A flower doesn’t become less remarkable because there will be another one next spring. Thoreau’s words have stayed with me because they suggest that we don’t always need to search somewhere distant for wonder. Sometimes it is quite literally under our feet. These paintings are an invitation to look a little longer at the things we pass every day: changing light, familiar hills, an ordinary flower, a season that won’t stay. There is something worth noticing here. Artist's Bio: Keersten Jensen is a Utah-based oil painter and educator whose work centers on the beauty of ordinary places, familiar landscapes, and the small moments that are easy to pass by. Working primarily in oils, she paints landscapes, florals, and figures with an emphasis on observation, light, and the traditions of representational painting. Jensen studied classical drawing and painting through a full-time apprenticeship at the Hein Atelier from 2018–2025. Her background as an educator has remained an important part of her practice. She has taught art in elementary schools, developed art-literacy curriculum, and currently teaches private students and workshops for both youth and adults. Her work has been exhibited throughout Utah and has received recognition in regional plein-air and juried exhibitions, including awards from the Holladay Plein Air, St. George Plein Air, Murray City, and Wasatch Plein Air competitions. Jensen lives and works in Murray, Utah, with three children, and a self-appointed studio assistant who also answers to “husband.”