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Biography
Jessenia Bonet is a native of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and has experimented with various art mediums from an early age. Some examples of this exploration include ink, watercolor, mixed media, and charcoal drawings featuring high contrast and patterns. Color is quintessential to her work, depicting rich saturated combinations. After a brief study of Fine Arts at MassArt, she returned to Cape Cod and graduated with an Associate’s of Art Degree at Cape Cod Community College. From 2017 to 2019 she completed a Science of Nursing Degree and set aside creative outlets to pursue a career in healthcare. After the height of Covid, she began revisiting the world of art and leaned into developing painting skills. In 2022 she felt inspired to create Coastal Cardinal Designs and seek a life of fulfillment through creative expression.
Artist Statement
In high school I wrote my admissions letter discussing the importance of bringing color and life into this world through my artwork. At the time I was heavily focused on mixed media and charcoal drawing. It didn’t occur to me that this expression would be through painting later in life. When I was younger I never challenged myself to learn how to paint and actively avoided these classes. Now I have embraced this medium and it is freeing. I feel exceptionally passionate about painting and am dedicating my time to creating collections and exposing my work to others. I’ve had a fairly recent change in perspective after losing one of my favorite people in this world, my Nana. I realized this life is very short and I’m not guaranteed every day. So, I have been on a true quest to reinstate the things that make me love life and feel alive: that being creating weird and beautiful art.
My designs are inspired by the life-like dreams I have, some recurring, in beautiful and scary settings. Often times the ocean, beach, and colors of blue are themes in my work as I grew up on an island and spent many days in the water. There are abstracted mythological creatures, dinosaurs, and monsters in my current pieces of the “Creatures Series”. I find Islam and the grandiosity of our natural surroundings an inspiration as well. I take great joy in the places I travel to and hike, therefor nature is a huge aspect of my works. I also like to hint at the afterlife and generally other life forms. Accompanying these personal masterpieces are numerous abstract and vivid paintings that I create to stay focused and redirect extra energy. Thus there is a lot of duality and variety in presented works.