Artist Statement

I'm an artist who hand-builds ceramics and paints mythological and scientific narratives for people who want the magical to feel real — because I believe re-enchantment isn't escapism, it's how we survive.

Biography

Kristin Kest is a multidisciplinary artist whose work sits at the odd intersection of natural science and living myth. She hand-builds ceramic vessels, talismanic objects, and sculptural forms alongside paintings and drawings that pull from botany, biology, folklore, and the deep strangeness of the natural world. Her ceramics extend that inquiry into three dimensions and into the chemistry itself — Kest formulates her own glazes, bringing the same obsessive attention to a cone-6 firing that she brings to a painted surface. The result is a body of work that feels simultaneously ancient and invented: artifacts from a mythology still being written.

Kest holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA from York College of Pennsylvania with an emphasis in Botany. For over 30 years, Kest has illustrated more than 30 children's nonfiction books and has served as botanical artist for The Old Farmer's Almanac Garden Calendar for over two decades. She taught Illustration and Drawing at York College of Pennsylvania for nearly a decade. Her work has been exhibited since 1996 and has included collaborations with the U.S. Department of State and the National Parks Service.

 

Credentials & Collaborations