Meet Jen Kruse

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jen Kruse a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jen, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I am an artist living with Schizoaffective Disorder. I have not only gotten, but also maintained my resilience in art from my disorder. My disorder comes with all kinds of struggles, and I have learned to turn them into my superpowers of sorts. I do a wide variety of art, everything from sewing and designing to painting, creating with resin, and my classic marker drawings. My resilience to do all of these comes from working through my disorder and learning how to not only live with it, but thrive with it.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I create art. I believe my art is unique because of my use of markers. A lot of my art is simply markers on paper, although I do a lot of painting, design, and resin work as well. I feel my marker work is what sets me apart. I create all kinds of wild shapes using bright and sometimes even neon colors. I have several pieces that I will be creating this year, the first of which is already up on my website. I am looking forward to a year of new shapes, new pieces, and new colors.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I believe my qualities of perseverance, dedication, and passion were so impactful in leading me to the place where I am at today. I have had to persevere through many ups and downs while maintaining my dedication and passion for my art. If I had any words of wisdom to share with someone early on in their journey, I would advise them to look internally for approval of their work. I truly believe that if you absolutely love what you are creating, everything else will fall into place.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
The Odyssey has been the important book in my life. I started reading versions of it from the age of 8, kids versions, all the way to college level versions, and it has been the most consistent book in my life. I learned from this book that there is beauty in everything if you look closely. Although it may sound strange, how a book on Greek myth could impact my art, but I was and still am captivated by the vivid descriptions of the tales it tells. I truly believe that this book created my ability to imagine, and thus my ability to envision not only my art, but my life as an artist from an early age.

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