Conversations with Jessica Wood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Wood.

Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to tell us about your story.
My story starts in Stokes County, North Carolina. I grew up right between Hanging Rock and Pilot Mountain State Parks. Natural beauty was all around me. My grandmother lived across the road from me, and one of my favorite things growing up was running barefoot as hard as I could to her house. The grass under my feet and the exhilaration of it all is something that I’ll never forget. I used to go to my grandmother’s house to sit and talk to her, and she would always cook something for me to eat. A lot of times when ball practice was over after school, I would go to her house and eat with her and then come back home and eat with my nuclear family. She was someone that I looked up to and wanted to be like. She made everyone feel at home and loved.

One of my grandmother’s favorite things was her flower garden. Her whole yard was full of flowers each year. When I was small, I would chase the monarch butterflies from azalea bush to azalea bush. My sister and I would play under the quilts that she had framed up in her back room so that she could work on them a little at a time. She hand-sewed the toppers to all of her quilts. When I got a little older, I would go to her house and she would show me how to make pillows and sew my own things. Grandma would pick flowers from her yard and put them in a vase on her porch or kitchen table. She showed me how to make my own flower vases as well. I loved how something so simple could make her so happy. This is a big inspiration for my work because I want to pass that happiness on to others.

My dad has been a massive source of inspiration to me as well. He taught me the value of hard work. Dad would say, as I was growing up, “Can’t never could do ‘nothin.” He didn’t want “can’t” to be in my vocabulary. I took that to heart. I have always tried to do my best at everything I do, and if you’re going to do something, it’s worth doing it right. My dad was my softball and basketball coach when I was growing up, and he would push us to our limits! Even though that was hard, it is something that I am so glad to have taken with me into adulthood and my art career now. My dad also has a huge heart. He’s compassionate and sentimental. I don’t know if it’s because I wanted to be like him or if I’m just like him, but I ended up being hard-working, sensitive, and sentimental. These things have taken me years to appreciate and understand that they are superpowers.

I went to Western Carolina University for my Bachelor of Fine Arts. During my second semester there, I got pregnant with my daughter. Her father and I got married and took a semester off to have our daughter. We found a little hole-in-the-wall duplex that was walkable to campus, and went back to finish our undergraduate programs. I was one of the first people in my family to have the opportunity to go to college, so I wasn’t going to mess that up. I also wanted to show my daughter that women are capable of tremendous things. You could find my daughter and me in the ceramic studio when I wasn’t in classes. These are some of my best memories. Then, it seemed so hard, but I never doubted that we would make it through. I had aspirations of being a Ceramic Artist. I became obsessed with learning everything I could about every medium I could fit into my schedule. I took independent studies in ceramics during the summers to use the studio all summer to hone my craft. We never took a break; we took all the classes we could, even during the summers, to stay on course. My senior year, I won lots of accolades for my work, and I ended up graduating Cum Laude with my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. I was so proud that I could graduate with my daughter by my side.

After college, I spent many years trying to make a loveless marriage work and fit in where I didn’t fit in so I could be a “good” mom for my daughter. I have since learned that being myself and strong for her was way more important, and when she saw me happy and confident, it made her happy and confident; lessons learned. I made things on the side during this time, like quilts for my daughter’s dance friends and handmade jewelry. I needed a kiln to do my ceramic work. Since I couldn’t work in ceramics, I felt I couldn’t be a “real artist” because that was what I was trained to do. I taught Art for a year in public schools. Then, I tried my hand at Real Estate.  Even though these were not the right opportunities for me, I am grateful for those years because they taught me a lot about people, and Real Estate taught me a lot about business and the Raleigh area.

Between 2019 and 2020, I went through several things that broke me. I went through a hurtful divorce, where I was blindsided by just how truly awful people can be, and when I tried to start dating again, I was raped. My PCOS symptoms were getting worse, I started having more issues with my back due to my scoliosis, and I had to start using a wheelchair and cane for distance. My grandmother’s health began to decline and she died in 2020, and then Covid happened. Thankfully, I met my current spouse during that time. He helped me through a lot that I was going through, and I helped him through things he was going through. We were kindred spirits who found each other at the perfect moment. He helped me to find my joy again. While we were quarantining for COVID-19, he gave me the confidence to use my creative abilities again. He gave me the confidence just to be myself.

I feverishly started to paint. It was a way to get my inner creative voice out without having a kiln or wheel. I have always loved color and could use colors that weren’t achievable with ceramics. Painting flowers gave me a way to connect with my grandmother and that feeling of security and “home” that I desperately needed at this time. I was having surgery after surgery due to my PCOS. I could hardly walk between the surgeries and the effects that they had on my back. I spent a few years in “my chair,” just painting away. This is how I developed my current style of painting. If I had to sit in my chair to heal, I would take advantage of every minute of it painting. I used dots, patterns, and colors to create dreamy florals for my Floral Still Life Series of mixed media paintings. It was just what I needed to combat the severe anxiety and depression that came along with everything that was going on in my life, as well as take my mind off of the pain.

I’m still working every day to make my body stronger, and some days are better than others. If I have a day where I am up and moving, I will have days after that where I can’t walk. I try to take advantage of the good days for taking artwork to galleries, being with my family, etc. The days when I hurt and don’t have mobility make me thankful for the ones I do have. I started painting to help me get through all of the things that were giving me severe anxiety and depression, but I soon learned that my artwork could inspire, bring joy, and help other people through things that they were going through. I was getting message after message on my new Instagram account that I had created for my artwork, telling me how much my work had meant to them and how much I had helped them through what they were going through. “How amazing!”, I thought. It makes me so happy to make other people happy. I feverishly started making artwork because it made me feel better, and the kind messages I was getting from other people telling me how my work had impacted them would bring me joy like I had never felt before. It has been a significant driving force in my work. I started painting flowers because they meant so much to me and reminded me of my childhood, but I continue to paint flowers because I see how much happiness they can bring to other people’s lives. Every day is painful, but it helps me to remember that other people are hurting and going through things too. Just as I needed my artwork to heal, I know from countless messages that it also helps others heal. I want to bring a little happiness into this world.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Although I specialize in many different mediums, I am most known for my Floral Still Life Series of paintings. I show much of my process on my social media platforms, and I love to work on a large scale when my body cooperates. I use everything from recycled items to costly inks and paints. I like to work on anywhere from 30-60 paintings at a time and listen to where my heart takes me daily. I combine different mediums to create vibrant, colorful paintings from my imagination that draw from past experiences and memories. I like to break things down to their simplest forms and play with their texture, pattern, and colors. I strive to create a modern take on the traditional still-life art form. Currently, I am working on my “Floral Still Life” and “Floral Explosion” Series.

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
It is so important to be a lifelong learner. We should be ever-changing and evolving. If you are not taking risks, you are not growing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jessicawoodartist.com
• Instagram: @jessicawoodartist
• Facebook: @JessicaWoodArt
• Threads: @jessicawoodartist
• TikTok: @jessica.wood.artist
• Pinterest: @jessicawoodartist

Image Credits
Jessica Wood Artist