Bev Jensen is an Australian collage and mixed media artist. Her images come from found objects, memorabilia, magazines and discarded books. Her creative life began as a photographer and later a botanical designer. These past experiences continue to influence her current art practice. After a three-year mentoring period with an established Australian collage artist Madonna Staunton and years of artist workshops she moved her art practice from her home to a studio in Metro Arts, a funded arts organization in Brisbane. During the last five years at Metro Arts Bev has instigated and set up a small gallery space called ‘the cupboard’, encouraging collaboration, support and opportunities for emerging visual artists of Metro Arts. She has curated several group exhibitions at ‘the cupboard’.
Bev works intuitively and consistently, allowing her work to emerge from her daily practice of visual journaling, her love of family and strong connection with nature, animals, and passion for gardening. Her inspiration also comes from personal experiences as an emerging artist coping with isolation….confidence…focus….accommodating deadlines and most importantly her love of humour when the going gets tough.
Her mixed media experimentation has included a series of artist books, printmaking, working with Perspex and more recently creating free standing 3 dimensional objects. This move to 3 dimensional works has sparked an interest in stage design. In 2007 Bev designed her first installation for theatre, “Gone to Earth” directed by Margi Brown Ash at QUT. This was followed by “A Mouthful of Pins”, directed by MBA for the World Theatre Festival at Brisbane Powerhouse, 2008. Presently Bev is working on a theatre piece at Judith Wright Centre called Sister, sister with Donna Cameron.
Bev continues to develop her experimental approach to her work by regularly participating in many workshops by visiting national and internationally artists. Bev was the creative designer of The Picnic with nest4change, the conference dinner for Australia Theatre Forum, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane, in September, 2011.