Jennifer Saenz is an award-winning beadwork artist based in Mustang, Oklahoma, whose work centers on portrait beadwork and visual storytelling. Through thousands of carefully placed glass beads, she creates lifelike portraits that honor individuals, histories, and human connection. Saenz developed and trademarked Beadtelling™, a process of using beads to tell stories through portraiture.
She began learning beadwork in 2022 and transitioned into studying portrait beadwork and design in December 2023. By March 2024, the first two beaded portraits she created were selected for the Into the Mirror exhibition at the Oklahoma History Center Museum.
Her work has been exhibited at the Oklahoma History Center Museum, the Five Civilized Tribes Museum, the Oklahoma Indian Territory Museum of Black Creek Freedmen History, and the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Cherokee Nation.
She is the creator of Threads of Untold History, a multi-venue exhibition developed with her mother, artist Vicky Watson. For more information, visit Threads of Untold History — featuring the first-ever portrait beadwork exhibition honoring Freedmen and Freedmen descendants of the Five Civilized Tribes.
Her connection to her Cherokee heritage is rooted in her family lineage, including her grandfather, who was a Cherokee citizen from the Wagoner County area in Oklahoma.
Medium: Basketry, Beadwork, Metalsmithing, Pottery, Storytelling, Textiles
My primary medium is glass beads, with a focus on portraiture. Through my process, Beadtelling™, I use portrait beadwork as a form of visual storytelling, creating detailed works that explore identity, history, and human connection.
Beadwork has long been tied to cultural expression, storytelling, and tradition. My work builds on these foundations by combining traditional beadwork techniques with contemporary portraiture, allowing individuals and their stories to exist within a new visual space. Through color, texture, and detail, I create portraits that preserve presence and invite deeper connection between the viewer and subject.
My work reflects the evolving nature of beadwork while honoring its longstanding role as a meaningful artistic and cultural practice.
