Jennika Bastian

Jennika Bastian is a Bay Area based magical realism painter.

One of her favorite quotes is “Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths,” by Joseph Campbell. She views her artwork as a dance between these realms. When Jennika was 5 years old she taught herself how to lucid dream. Her aesthetic is informed by how objects, environments and characters appear in her dreams: shape shifting, ephemeral, simultaneously growing and decaying.

She is fascinated by mythology and folklore in different cultures- particularly how these tales can thread within our subconscious minds, almost as if the stories are organisms unto themselves. When she creates a painting, she often asks herself “if my subconscious were a myth, what kinds of beings would inhabit that space, what places would they walk in and what motifs would breathe there?”
Jennika has been self-employed since she was 16 years old, selling her personal artwork and creating commissions. Her freelance work includes illustrating a young adult fantasy series, installation design for the Burning Man festival, outdoor illuminated sculptures, murals and live painting on stage for concerts. Her work has been exhibited regionally and internationally.