Steve Jensen
Steve Jensen has been a working artist for over 40 years. His current body of work, “VOYAGER” are boats that are meant to symbolize a voyage or journey, perhaps it is the voyage to the other side, or the journey into the unknown. Steve comes from a long tradition of Scandinavian fisherman and boat builders. He grew up on and around his father and grandfather’s fishing boats in the Seattle shipyards. From 2015 through 2022, Steve has solo exhibited at “SAM” Gallery, at the Seattle Art Museum, The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Foss Seaport Museum, Tacoma, WA, Vashon Center for the Arts, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA, Schack Art Center, Everett, WA, San Juan Island Museum of Art, Friday Harbor, WA, Gallery at the Park, Richland, WA and The Larson Gallery, Yakima, WA. This work was featured by Channel 9 “Art as Voyage” Steve Jensen’s Nordic Heritage and Amazon Prime, “The Story of Art in America”, episode 10
Steve Jensen / 2023
My family is from Norway. My father was a fisherman. My grandfather was a fisherman. My other grandfather was a boat builder. Upon the death of my parents, I made a boat for their ashes and buried them at sea, something like a contemporary Viking funeral. I also made a boat for my best friend and former partner of 24 years, again burying them at sea. For me, the boat is meant to symbolize the voyage or journey, perhaps it is the voyage to the other side or the journey into the unknown. These deaths were extremely tragic. My best friend died of AIDS, my father committed suicide, my mother fell apart emotionally and physically and my former partner from alcoholism. What I am attempting to do is to take something that was tragic in my life and turn it into something beautiful.
