1. dead daughter in the river, 2. mystery bruise, 3. your babysitter, 4. Untitled, 5. death set, 6. Untitled, 7. your fever is safe with me, 8. multiple, 9. alone at night
i met this beautiful girl in two thousand four when she modeled for one of my first fashion, sixties mod styled photo shoots- we always have remained electronic friends and recently had a friendship awakening. jessica is such a talented artist and illustrator, i am so inspired by her fashionable, dark, retro ladies- they all have such meaning behind them, you can see it in their water colored eyes and blood stained cheeks-
(dtk) describe yourself:
(jm) I am a self-taught, semi-trained, illustrator of women in trouble. I love zombies, suspense, and big hair.
(dtk) when is your birthday?
(jm) april 15th 1984
(dtk) ten favorite things? (anything)
1. old samsonite luggage
2. white gouache
3. red and turqouise
4. travel
5. horror movies
6. valium
7. coffee
8. David Lynch
9. Speedball #104 Extra Fine Litho Point pen nibs
10. technicolor
(dtk) earliest art memory?
(jm) I have no idea! I recall being in the third grade and doing what I thought was a Picasso cubist painting. It’s of a little girl reading a book with her mother, the girl is crying and the mother is smiling. It’s very strange, I found it in my garage a few weeks ago.
(dtk) favorite shoes?
(jm) Cream colored leather peep-toe pumps with yellow snake skin. They’re probably from the early sixties.
(dtk) describe your working process from start to finish-
(jm) I like to save old photos, weird photos, and neat things that I find. I try and write down ideas when I get them, but I have forgotten at least 50, 896 amazing ideas. They always come to me when I should be doing something else. I like to do gestural sketches first and then ink the lines in. Ink is messy and I am prone to accident so most of the time I end up doing two drawings, or sometimes more. Then I paint over the drawing with watercolor. I like to use watercolor with white gouache.
(dtk) do you consider yourself an artist?
(jm) yes!
(dtk) how did you evolve to what you do now?
(jm) As a child, I always made art. It’s the only thing I have ever done. I used to illustrated little short stories that I would write. I drew patterns for clothes that I would make for my dolls. I didn’t live near any other children. I would draw on my homework, during class, even during recess sometimes. After high school I went to California Institute of the Arts- San Francisco. I excelled in design and illustration but did not enjoy the pattern drafting and construction classes. After two years, my mom became ill and I decided to come home. When I left school I decided to abandon fashion design/illustration and attempted to go back to a more traditional way of drawing, doing figure drawing, still life, and sketching with charcoal and all of that academic stuff. Then about two years ago I tried pen and ink and decided to go back to fashion inspired drawing because I never was able to break away from the nine-head model. I still do straight fashion illustration gestural sketches to warm up.
(dtk) favorite song of the moment?
(jm) TSOL “funeral march”
(dtk) describe your personal style (you and art)-
(jm) Sweet, old-fashioned, and morbid.
(dtk) where do you want your art to go?
(jm) In the near future: I am slowly gathering suitcases and handbags that I intend to paint on with enamel. I also plan on getting into printing soon. I want to make stationery, cards, posters etc. I have also been working on larger pieces recently. My best friend is working on a children’s book (she is so talented) and I am illustrating it.
(dtk) advice to other illustrators?
(jm) It’s the same advice everyone gives but I feel it’s relevant to me. If you want your work to be authentic, draw what you love. Love always comes through. Don’t forget about all that composition stuff too, it’s totally important.
links:
jessica-m has a blog that i love to read, my favorite entry is this one
she is on flickr
and the evilspace
