In the summer of 2008 Gay Jensen went to Alaska, and one of the highlights of her trip was seeing bears congregate at Brooks Falls to feed on the salmon run. Being that close to so many bears was an experience that had a huge impact on her emotionally and spiritually. When she got back to Seattle she knew she had to make an artwork expressing her feelings about this adventure. Using photographs she had taken of bears at Brooks Falls, the pair of old jeans she was wearing on the trip, a piece of scrap wood from a construction site, paint, and leftover fabrics from quilt projects, Gay created an artwork titled “Encounters Remembered.” Little did she know at the time that creating this piece would lead her down the path of making abstract artworks from old jeans and scrap wood. When she worked on “Encounters Remembered” she was so delighted with the way the old jean fabric interacted with paint that it prompted her to look at old jeans with a new eye—as potential art material!