Jeff Baenen, Kenosha
2024-25 RAM Artist Fellowship Award Recipient
Kenosha-based wood artist, Jeff Baenen, has been honing his craft for over 25 years. Baenen grew up on the outskirts of Door County, Wisconsin, making forts, riding dirt bikes, and having just enough time on his hands to be dangerously creative. Inherently curious and introspective, he always had a desire to create. Before finding his passion for woodworking, he had a love for watercolor, scratchboard, pastels, and pointillism. Baenen’s 28-year career as a mechanical designer has run parallel to his art career with each role informing the other to find solutions and push creative boundaries. Creative problem solving has been his enduring lifelong passion.
Artist Statement
Influenced by both nature and industrial design, my sculptural boxes are constantly evolving. I am fascinated with finding ways to manipulate wood to perform in unexpected ways. My boxes are one-of-a-kind, with meticulous craftsmanship present through each piece. The concepts of my pieces are often based on memories, emotions, and stories, with nods to architectural, mechanical, and industrial design. I believe a box can be much more than just a simple vessel and I am honored to create pieces that hold our most treasured objects, our secrets, and our history.
Jeff Baenen, Kenosha
2024-25 RAM Artist Fellowship Award Recipient
Photography: Camela Langendorf, Varitay Studios
Kenosha-based wood artist, Jeff Baenen, has been honing his craft for over 25 years. Baenen grew up on the outskirts of Door County, Wisconsin, making forts, riding dirt bikes, and having just enough time on his hands to be dangerously creative. Inherently curious and introspective, he always had a desire to create. Before finding his passion for woodworking, he had a love for watercolor, scratchboard, pastels, and pointillism. Baenen’s 28-year career as a mechanical designer has run parallel to his art career with each role informing the other to find solutions and push creative boundaries. Creative problem solving has been his enduring lifelong passion.
Artist Statement
Influenced by both nature and industrial design, my sculptural boxes are constantly evolving. I am fascinated with finding ways to manipulate wood to perform in unexpected ways. My boxes are one-of-a-kind, with meticulous craftsmanship present through each piece. The concepts of my pieces are often based on memories, emotions, and stories, with nods to architectural, mechanical, and industrial design. I believe a box can be much more than just a simple vessel and I am honored to create pieces that hold our most treasured objects, our secrets, and our history.
Interview with the Artist, January 2025
Please share the basics of your art career thus far. Education, years working, etc. How long have you been a part of the Racine/Kenosha community?
From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always been project driven and thrived being creative. Growing up in rural Wisconsin gave me time and space to learn those skills without noticing I was. Building forts in the woods, making rubber band guns, wooden robots with movable limbs, drawing, making wooden butterflies to sell with my uncle, and then working on my motorcycles were all favorite projects for me growing up.
I had amazing art teachers in grade/high school that encouraged me to keep drawing and creative problem solving. In college I started out in architecture school and then transitioned to mechanical design. That’s when my love for architecture, art history, and drafting really flourished.
My path to focusing on woodworking has been an ever-evolving process. Primarily it has been a self-taught passion. I’m a sponge for woodworking books, magazines, documentaries, and YouTube videos, but I can’t discount the many years of good old-fashioned trial and error.
I moved to Kenosha around 2000, but work brought me back to Illinois a few years later. I started to build my shop in the basement of my first home in Waukegan a 350 sq foot space that tested my Tetris skills but also allowed me to focus on intricate small pieces and where “Baenen Boxes” was officially born. I always knew I wanted to come back and when I met my partner in 2014, we decided we wanted to come back to Kenosha together —eventually buying a home in 2015. That home had a spacious, unfinished, walk-out basement which has given me the ability to create more dynamic and complex pieces. We love the community here and are so happy to be back in Wisconsin.
Would you please describe your work–what materials you use, what subject matters you explore?
In its simplest form I am a box maker. I do mix in purely sculptural pieces, but my heart is always in box making. Wood is my primary material, but I love pulling unexpected materials into my pieces including, but not limited to: metals, stone, objects, acrylic, paper, and fabric. The sky is the limit to what subject matters I explore, but sources of inspiration include: motorcycle and automotive design, architecture, nature, tattoo and biomechanical design, and themes of personal connection and emotion.
How often are you in your studio? Do you work outside of your studio much or at all?
I usually get in the studio about 2-4 days a week. I work full-time as the Head of Mechanical Design for a startup speaker company, so weekdays in my shop are shorter sessions leaving weekends as my most productive time. I’m aiming for early retirement with the goal of increasing my time in the studio. My career involves 3D modeling and product design. I use that skill to conceptualize pieces by creating a complete 3D model that I can create drawings or files from. I’m grateful that regardless of how tired I am I still wake up excited to grab my cup of coffee, head into the studio and dive in. On the weekends my favorite thing to do is exhaust myself in the studio and then go out to dinner.
What inspires you most these days? But also what do you go to bed thinking about most nights?
I find many things in life inspiring when it comes to my pieces. A simple walk, drive to work, a story heard on the radio, or a good talk with a friend can stir up a new design. My over awareness of my surroundings makes my mind start breaking down what I see into shapes and forms. Different colors turn into different species of wood. The happiness or pain I feel gets turned into a shape or movement the piece will have or do. Most of my ideas come to me when I finally allow myself to relax and do something fun. Adventures include attending live concerts, watching the sunset at the family cabin, going on historic building tours, visiting museums, antique shopping, or just watching a good sci-fi movie. My brain fires all day with little reprieve, so Amy would say I don’t go to bed thinking about too much since I’m out like a light when I hit the pillow.
What does it mean to you to get recognition as a RAM Fellowship Award winner?
Applying for the RAM Fellowship was a big step outside of my comfort zone. For many years I created boxes and only ever shared them with friends and family. I just love creating and couldn’t stop. Keeping my work so private in the beginning, to now being recognized by such a renowned contemporary art and craft museum as the RAM, is deeply meaningful for me. It’s a marker of how far I’ve come and a reminder there is a reason I can’t stop making art.
Sample of Work
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