We held a Q&A with one of our newest artists, Jenny Kroik. Her work beautifully captures city life, featuring scenes of New York City strolls and its unique, quirky characters. Discover her lifelong love of puzzles and her obsession with birding!
1. Can you tell us a little about your artistic process?
My process relies a lot on observation and my experiences. I’m inspired by people and places around me, by the light, by my moods, etc! I’ll see something in front of me, and I get an idea of how to turn it into a painting. Other times I’ll start by playing around with paint and a piece will emerge.
I try to have a daily practice and do something art-related each day, whether it’s mixing paints, doodling on the train in my sketchbook, or looking at art in a museum!
2. Walk us through a day in the life of Jenny Kroik?
Oh boy! It’s not very exciting, haha! About twice a week I teach illustration at FIT. My students are wonderful, so I enjoy those days. The rest of the week are studio days- which include working on art commissions for clients, or on personal pieces, as well as paperwork/ emails and such.
Being a freelancer is great because I can decide my own schedule. I might spend a good chunk of my day birding, running errands, or meeting other artists, and then do all my work in the evening and at night. I love painting at night when it’s quiet, and sometimes I’ll finish working at 1am or 2am!
3. How much does the city of New York inform your subjects? Can you talk about what else inspires your work?
NYC is a HUGE inspiration in my work! Mainly: people-watching. My work is very narrative, and NYC has endless stories all around us. I’m also inspired by other artists, and my birding obsession.. erm.. I mean HOBBY is also a big inspiration, though indirectly: Observing nature is
a great way to find balance and gain perspective, and helps me to not get swept up in my own imagination.
4. Since it’s March and Women’s History Month, a lot of your art features women in and around various places in New York. Can you talk about what it means to be a woman in NYC and why that relationship is so important?
I am definitely inspired by all the strong women in NYC! There is so much individuality in this city and I love meeting women who do exciting and unusual things. I think that being a woman in the city means you can be whoever you want, and no one has the right to judge you.
Everyone here is weird and unique!
5. What’s your favorite thing to do in New York, and can you bring a puzzle there?
As I mentioned, I love birding. You could, potentially, situate yourself on a bench in Central Park’s The Ramble, do your puzzle, and watch as different birds come and go! (Maybe the birds can even help you with some of the difficult pieces?)
6. Now that your artwork has been applied to the world of jigsaw puzzles, does that affect your compositions at all? Repeating patterns, colors, locations, etc.
My first New Yorker cover of The Strand Bookstore was made into a puzzle by NYPC, and when I did the puzzle- I was shocked that I had trouble putting it together! After all, I painted it!! It was so interesting to see how my work translated into a totally different thing. So maybe I have already had puzzles on my mind after that experience! I learned that, if you use the same orange brushstroke all over the piece, it’s going to be a very difficult puzzle, haha!
7. Are you a fan of jigsaw puzzles? Can you share a childhood or adult puzzle memory with us?
I am a HUGE fan of puzzles, and had an almost existential relationship with puzzles as a kid, on account of getting a few hand-me-down puzzles with missing pieces. It’s like the puzzle with the missing piece was saying to me: “This incomplete picture is like life’s many mysteries that you may never know the answer to!”
I also have many pleasant memories from childhood of putting puzzles together with my dad. As an adult, I revived my puzzling habits after I met my husband and we would go down with his family to the beach each summer. A few summers ago we started a very difficult puzzle, and every guest that came to visit would get sucked into doing the puzzle. It’s amazing how time moves differently when you’re doing a puzzle!
8. Are you looking forward to working on any of your new puzzles from New York Puzzle Company? Which do you think you’ll start with?
I am SO excited to do my NYPC puzzles!! I think I’ll start with the small ones first, and move to the bigger ones when it’s Spring Break. I want to do a time-lapse video of the process, too! I’m already getting messages from people who finished some of my puzzles, and it makes me endlessly happy!
9. How do you feel about exposing a whole new audience to your art through the world of puzzling?
I feel really excited and honored. Judging from my own experience puzzling, I feel like it’s a totally different way to experience an artwork: you sit with every piece- you examine the marks, and wonder what they are. And It’s also interactive, so, hopefully, the people doing the puzzle can feel like they are part of the creative process. Maybe I can share with others the sense of joy I feel when I finish working on a painting!
10. Can you talk about any projects you’re currently working on or have on deck for 2025?
I just finished some paintings for a couple of publications, and now I’m working on a few other editorial pieces and some private commissions of families. I had a piece in a show of The New Yorker Magazine cover art at L’Alliance- that was really nice! (Still up until the 30th, if you have time to go see it!) To advertise the show, my art appeared on a few bus shelters around town. This made me want to try to do more public art, it was really nice to see my art in the wild! I’m not sure what else will pop up in 2025, but I am actually thinking of painting a few more
puzzle ideas at the moment! I’m addicted! :)
You can follow Jenny Kroik on Instagram, or see more of her work, or get your own commissioned piece on her website.
