If you’ve been on my YouTube channel in the last couple of years, you’ll have met Jennifer Kosharek before.

If you haven’t, here’s the link.

When I recorded that film, I didn’t have time to get a proper stills portrait of Jennifer. Last year, just (and I mean by only 3 days) as the US opened its borders again for visitors, I travelled from visiting my friends in Ohio, down to St Pete’s in Florida, to grab a portrait for this series. And it was a good job I did make the effort, because as we met up, Jennifer was packing up her house to move… to Alaska!

Now, as I live in the miserable weather capital of the world, the East Midlands of England, moving from the wonderful climate of Florida, to Alaska of all places, would seem like a bonkers concept to me. I love Florida and it’s no secret that as I get older, I fully intend to spend a large chunk of the miserable British winter in its much more agreeable climes.

But Jennifer had got to that point, where indeed a lot of us do, that to facilitate her artistic and creative growth, a change was needed. Ok, over 4500 miles may seem a little excessive for a change, but that’s what Jennifer needed. You see Jennifer loves the outdoors; hiking, climbing, camping and exploring. Within Jennifer’s artworks, you’ll find lots of references to nature and the natural world. Unfortunately, St Pete’s and indeed Florida in general, isn’t exactly known for majestic scenery and mountain ranges; whereas Alaska…

The other reason I was glad to be able to make the trip, was because it’s actually lucky that Jennifer is still fully with us at all.

Whilst painting one of her building murals in downtown St Pete’s over a year ago, Jennifer’s ladder slipped. Crashing down and catching her head on a post, splitting it open, Jennifer was lucky to only walk away (figuratively speaking. She was carted away in an ambulance) with a concussion and now almost vanished scar. In fact, that mural remains unfinished. The unfinished work is now included on St Pete’s popular mural walking tours, and Jennifer’s story is going into tour folklore. I think that’s rather fabulous, and the mural itself is lovely in its unfinished state. It gives the viewer an often unseen aspect to Jennifer’s work. What a lot of people don’t realise, is that Jennifer writes words, poems, and sayings, onto her canvases before covering them with her final creation. With the unfinished mural, some of those words can still be seen.

Much of Jennifer’s work has been described as whimsical, although not by Jennifer herself. Research her work and the colours and indeed creatures of the sunshine state of Florida are clearly evident. So what’s going to be really interesting, and Jennifer is looking forward to this too, is seeing how the huge change in location and environment will change the works she produces…

To follow Jennifer’s journey, you can connect with her on Instagram at @kosharekart