Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Dillon.
Jessica, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
My story as an artist begins with an early memory I’ve held onto. I’m small and fit completely inside a red and white flannel onesie. I’m wandering around on a wet grassy pad collecting chestnuts that have fallen from the trees above. One by one I’m picking them up and putting them into a barrel. I’m in the backyard behind an old farmhouse that sits on a riverbank in a village called Stillwater, Pennsylvania. I can feel the wet soil seep through the cotton and in between my toes.
I am made of both my memories and my physical body. Memories build for a lifetime, while the body proceeds to degrade. Everyday I sew these sleeves together and allow a string of constructed selves to unfold. As I grow there are more choices and I become accustomed to less options. The amalgamation gets thick so I pull it apart to make identification blur. The learning never gets old. In my artwork I play these choices out by fleshing out the space between my physical and psychological being. How do I get to be? I’ve fed myself through my corresponding thoughts, images, words and actions. I slip on a step and fall a lot. I am working to build an elevated sense of emotional perception that registers somewhere between pure potential and earthly consequence. To look and feel I gather and collect. To take on the world, I scan the fusion and select from the entire array, the maelstrom of life. But the POV remains tight, like that of the near-sighted girl who is collecting and carrying objects. I move in close and move out.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My art comes out of living rather than the construction of discreet objects. I work primarily from the body, out of actions. The materials and objects that I employ form a ritual landscape that I interact within. My work does not approach a singular representation of self. Rather, I imagine the fashioning of a quiver, a series of tools and skins that fold and change, moving from and for, always in relation to the bodily self that exists within, moving from, beside, in front of, always in relation to that which has yet to become. Visual data is gathered in order to study and reconstruct relived experience. Data is lost and space is found where different amalgamations are employed. What is learned comes from overlaps along the way. Installations are made of light, sound, painting, drawing, sculpture, video, live body, text, and performance residue. My hope is that the work will stimulate the viewer’s sense of emotional perception causing them to reconsider how they engage their physical body within the context of a symbolically charged world.
How can artists connect with other artists?
Don’t be afraid to give yourself over to your art and believe in the connectivity of what you do. Making art is a solitary process. Fortunately today we have the ability to show each other what we do and to communicate in high def at virtually any stage. We should not be afraid to take advantage of this possibility. Dialogue is imperative. Care for the people that you can be honest with and those who are willing be most honest with you. Those that allow a process to unfold, they are the treasures of life. Without them our evolution would cease. Even if it’s only a phone call, an email, or a weekly studio visit on the couch, make those ends meet.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
There is always something new. I’m excited about several collaborative performances that are coming up. Since finishing my MFA this past spring I have had the opportunity to travel and have felt confident in my motivation to work and process quickly while working in fragments and on the road . As part of this process I have embraced social media and the internet to allow a frequent viewable access point into my practice. Working this way has allowed me to move through my thoughts and actions faster and to be less precious about manifestations that aren’t flowing. In past years, I have shown primarily in the context of artist led initiatives and collaborations around L.A. It has always been important for me to make ways to show(s) without the prerequisite of the white cube. For now you will find me somewhere on the streets, swimming in the ocean, or finding a mountain top. That’s where I’ll be working. You can find a string of momentary glimpses somewhere online. But I’d prefer it most if we could just have a conversation.
Contact Info:
- Address: Ocean Park, Santa Monica, CA
- Website: https://www.jessicadillon.info/
- Phone: 3109242834
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @paradiseorbust
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessicadillonartist
Self Portrait as Floatation Device, from Body Spill, 2018
Don’t Just Roll Over Video Still from Moor Walk, 2018
Lays To Rest Video Still from Tubes Back In, 2018
Mudroom, 2017
Lower Yourself In, 2018
Riverroll, 2017
Riverbed, 2017
Tubes Back In, 2018
Image Credit:
Jessica Dillon
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