Conversations with Jessica Wilcox

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Wilcox

Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m currently an MFA Fine Arts Candidate at Otis College Art and Design, about to BLAST / launch / smash into the real world this Spring 2025.

My decision to pursue and MFA was centered around 2 goals: 1) to find community 2) to disarm my preconceived notions of the stuck up, gatekeeping art world, becoming a bridge into the art world.

I’m an interdisciplinary artist – my work is playfully subversive, poking fun and unpacking gender norms, societal expectations, and power dynamics. My work leans on absurdity, satire, and scale to explore my quest for human connection, unfulfilled longing, and played out fantasies.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I studied psychology in undergraduate at Occidental College because I love people (and identify as a golden retriever stuck in a human body). I thought I wanted to be a therapist, but it turns out, I hated psychological research. Right before I graduated, my drawing teacher said to me, “Jessica, I feel like you need to be an artist, I can feel it in your soul.” To which I thought, but you can’t make money as an artist (!!!). I continued to ruminate about what she said for years.

After graduation, I worked in publicity. It wasn’t until I went through a crazy business merger and came out the other side as a “travel coordinator” that I realized I seriously wanted to pursue art. I safely pursued graphic design (because you could be creative and make money. Win, win).

I enrolled at Pratt for an Associate’s crash course in Graphic Design in 2020, which was entirely online. Because it was online, I was able to spend time with my mom – her cancer came back and metastasized. It went really quick, it took 3 months from the time of her diagnosis to the time of her passing. …. I got to witness everything, spend time with her, experience the cyclical nature of caregiving. I didn’t realize I was performing hospice during those months.

During her last hospital visit, I went on a walk and felt like a beam of insight hit me. I came back from my walk and told my mom “I’m moving back to LA, do art, and be happy.”

After she passed, I came back to LA but I couldn’t figure out how to “hack” the whole “being an artist” thing. I was freelancing for my old boss, and doing graphic design, but I felt like I was disappointing my promise to my mom (which was really a promise to myself) to be an artist. I realized I needed community, so I applied to MFA programs. And here we are.

I felt like I met myself again during this MFA program. I could sync my personality to my practice, play, and be wierd. I’m excited to continue to build community and find other weirdos like me.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an interdisciplinary artist. I do a bit of this, do a bit of that. Specifically, painting, sculpture, video and performance. Similar to a wolf in sheep’s clothing, my work relies on humor as a disarming device to make space for vulnerability or social criticality.

If you were to ask me what I’m most proud of, my knee-jerk answer would be “my buttcrack painting.” But in actuality, it’s my Lasso video, which combines both grief and humor, and might make you cry.

What matters most to you? Why?
Easy, bubbly water and dogs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jessicawilcoxart.com/
• Instagram: @jessicawilcoxart

Image Credits
Jess Star