Jill Nahrstedt is a visual artist based in Chicago. She is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a member of the Thrive Artist Network, a community of over 200 artists from around the world. Through art and travel, Nahrstedt is seeking not answers but questions. 

 

Working primarily in paint, Nahrstedt explores relationships between people, the physical world, and the digital space we all call our second home. To bridge the understanding of motives and movements, she pivots between realism and abstraction. Paintings of the concrete concepts of people and places are recognizable. In exploration of the unbound, Nahrstedt layers natural elements in brilliant hues and loose shapes using large brushstrokes and quick movements. She finally weaves delicate details into the compositions with fondness and restraint. The layers create depth in a way traditional collage does, minus the scissors. 

 

Nahrstedt also prints serigraphs of local architectural groupings, dabbles in surf art, and paints portraits of hipsters she sources from social media.