The Tender Path
What We Find When We Slow Down
For years, this Substack has been a journal of the ephemeral, and my photographic work has always sought to capture that same delicate quality. My evolving series, “Where Memory Softly Falls,” is the heart of that quest.
The entire journey—my life, my work, and the final breathtaking drive down the Columbia River Gorge with my sister Toren just after saying goodbye to our sister Cheryl—continues to be a mystic road.
My upcoming exhibition, “Wonder/Tender,” at the Oblivion Gallery here in Eugene, Oregon, is the next step on this path. The “Tender” half of the show explores the raw, unresolved feelings of impending absence and the quiet ache of memory already slipping away. It’s what I feel as her spirit ascends and her body descends—a season of departure and transition.
The medium I use is the perfect collaborator for this theme. Encaustic, the ancient medium of beeswax and damar resin, creates a warm, translucent veil. It is a protective skin, allowing the composite photographs—where autumn leaves, shadows of birds, and half images of a woman walking away (the animals who live in the Great Mystery, as did Cheryl)—to glow through a beautiful, gentle haze.
The process is like holding a memory in the light:
A Glimpse of the Journey
These are some of the images from the “Tender” half of the show that reflect that autumn feeling of contemplation and journey, of grasping at a beautiful memory.


This exhibition will be a conversation between the transient and the eternal, the Tender memory and the flash of Wonder (which we’ll explore in the next post).
If this resonates with your journey, I would be honored if you would join me.
Invitation
The “Wonder/Tender” exhibition, featuring gilded photography and encaustic work, opens December 6th at Oblivion Gallery in Eugene, OR. My Artist Talk at 2:00 pm.
For daily, behind-the-scenes video updates and process notes, please follow my social channels and the hashtag: #WONDERTENDER
P.S. I am delighted to announce I am now represented by Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. You can view my evolving portfolio here: https://tinyurl.com/JensenAtXanadu





Wonderful evolution of your creative vision. Wishing you all the best as you continue expanding into new areas of photographic exploration combined with all the creative elements you incorporate into your work, one masterpiece at a time...xoxo
Congratulations! Love it!