An Interview with Jena Ataras: Mixed Media & Digital Collage Artist, and Highly Commended Entrant of the VAA’s Artist of the Year 2024
Jena Ataras – Artist Feature – VAA Member of the Month February 2025
Jena Ataras is a Portland-based artist working predominantly with mixed media and digital collage. She desires to shift her viewers’ perspectives through the exploration of deconstructed materials and forms, to expose societal underbellies.
Inspired by a variety of tactile elements – from transformed hues to dimensional phenomena – Ataras creates unexpected visual conversations with her art. She pulls apart a range of genres and textures to reveal the hidden possibilities within each material. Her constant experimentation of form and usage of mixed media allows her to reveal otherwise obscured concepts, dissolving boundaries to create new perspectives. Ataras’ work is a powerful example of art as an activist, questioning norms and advocating for a world beyond binaries.
‘Because of my experience with human violence, I often crawl into the womb of darkness to explore the psychology of bias, hate and deceit that plagues the US. But, I also wish to demonstrate a way out of that darkness and find connection through our humanity.’
I have always seen myself as a Storyteller first, and everything else falls under that umbrella of work. My father was a writer, and I as a child was always putting on plays and writing scripts for shows to put on, and writing ideas down on restaurant napkins. It was a normal thing for me to bike around my neighborhood looking for other kids to play with me and act in my shows, bestowing big bags of candy was their payment for labor. As I became older, my mother put me in Creative writing classes, so I assumed I was a writer like my father and received my BFA in Creative writing. Once graduated, I took a job in Social Work and continued to write and act in plays in New England. But over time I became bored with writing and assumed it was Writer’s block, until I took an art class at Stanford and fell in love with the breadth of visual arts. I felt free and excited to experiment with different ways to tell a story and no longer felt like I was in a straightjacket!
I think I lean into a more stylized method. I love playing with shapes and distortion of bodies and faces, and use of color, while examining themes that are unpleasant and weird. My childhood and young adulthood was rife with extreme racism. I was bullied by my peers and my teachers, I was beaten, spit on and hit with rocks. Death was a notion I danced with many times. Somehow my love for learning and connection with my fellow human beings was not purged. Because of my experience with human violence, I often crawl into the womb of darkness to explore the psychology of bias, hate and deceit that plagues the US. But, I also wish to demonstrate a way out of that darkness and find connection through our humanity. Some of the artists that I am drawn to are: British writer and actress, Michaela Coel, Wangechi Mutu, the late comedian, Robin Williams and Lil Nas X.
What is your background, and how has life shaped your art? What is your artistic style and influence?
What is your creative process? What are your artistic challenges?
It’s funny, even though I don’t see myself as a writer, every day, I sit down with a big mug of delicious light roast coffee at my computer, and write notes to myself. I write what is bothering me, what jokes I thought were funny at a comedy stand-up, etc. From there I start sketching ideas, faces, mixing prints together using many types of software, until a theme begins to reveal itself to me. I am not religious, but the ritual does feel spiritual at times, certainly cathartic. I love using digital collage to be kind of a storyboard for me to experiment with.
Challenges I have faced and continue to face is how to be me and all its complexities that come with being a Queer, WOC, in a society that feels incredibly divided and scary. Sometimes I want to create works that are whimsical and light, but I do carry this burden that I feel as a Brown Artist that I must talk about the poisons in our country and offer solutions to solve them. I feel neglectful if I don’t talk about those issues in my work, while at the same time, I feel resentful that once again, I feel pressure to participate in the clean-up of a mess I didn’t create. So, it’s a dance between trying to still be the Societal Nurse, wanting to help and fix and heal vs. just being a person who wants to talk about silly things. I also wish to delight and make people laugh, I don’t always want my work to be deep and morose.
‘Act like you’re on fire! Do it!’
What I find difficult is feeling like I must be as much as an artist, as a content creator. I have a few thousand followers on my some of my Socials, but that is nothing compared to other artists. It’s overwhelming at times, when I find myself caring about how many likes and follows I have. When people are being interviewed for jobs, it’s not uncommon to be asked what kind of following you have. I don’t want to feel insecure, because my follower count in low. I want my work to stand for itself. I still haven’t found peace with it, but yoga helps!
What do you think about the use of AI in the art world?
I think AI could be a great tool to help research information and be used as a guide, as you train yourself with a new medium like watercolors or acrylic paint. However, what is happening right now, is true artists are being pushed aside, because AI is much cheaper, artists are being asked to work for less pay. Also, I have seen many people call themselves artists, though all of their work is the work of AI. I have seen someone on FB with over 100,000 followers and they are repeating the same AI images over and over again. It’s people picking quantity over quality, and right now, as artists we can only complain, and find a way to keep moving onward.
What do you find hardest about improving your arts profession? What are your current obstacles?
What advice would you offer fellow artists?
Anyone who is new to this world, I would say listen to your own voice. Yes, watch YouTube videos, but also go to the Museums in your city and take a community art class. Get around your fellow artists! You get to meet people who are just starting out, to people who have been doing this for 50 years and can offer such amazing wisdom and feedback. I also think it’s important every day to invest in your work. Find time every day to write down, sketch, paint something that is meaningful to you. Every day I work on a piece and every night before I fall asleep I text myself an idea, no matter how crazy it sounds. I mean, one on my series, “My Beautiful Freak”, came from one text to myself at 4am! Don’t wait, you can never get that time back. Act like you’re on fire! Do it!
What are your Future Aspirations?
I would love to do some collaborations with fellow artists! I would love to open a spot where fellow artists, come visit and stay a spell. We could develop a short play or short film, or music or something in between. Work on an Installation together. Perhaps work on a Zine with others! I hope my work continues to grow and change but still feel like me. I am a very curious person so I will always be experimenting with different mediums and continue to take art classes so that I can push myself out of my comfort zone. Oh, and travel, lots of travel!