Expanding & Diversifying
"Nothing can be changed until it is faced."
-James Baldwin
As we enter into the fall season of a truly historical year, I wanted to be in touch.
Each piece of art I create captures a season of my life. Not in words, but in essence and emotion...spoken through color, composition, and scale. Abstract art is emotions made visible, internal processing made external. In fact, to me, my abstract art is not abstract at all, but the act of turning the intangible into the tangible….the subtle into the concrete, bold and obvious.
With each piece, my intuition leads the way. There are no rules, there is no checklist, no syllabus to follow, no grade at the end, and no obvious finish line. Therefore, my intuition not only informs my strokes as I go, but also informs my decision to declare a piece as complete.
Back in May, I had four pieces (a triptych and three individual works on paper) that I could feel were nearly complete, but I felt no urge to engage with them...no sense of what I needed to bring each piece “home,” to itself. So I let them sit, paused.
It wasn’t long after that, that George Floyd was murdered and centuries of racial injustice were unmasked for me, as a white person, to see more clearly than ever before.
I grew silent. No social media posts or newsletter updates. Not because I didn’t care, but because I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t know what to say.
The only thing that felt right for many, many weeks was to listen. And not just listen so I could turn around and speak, but listen to truly hear and understand. And not just listen to people who looked like me on the matters at hand, but listen to people who didn’t.
Listening eventually led me to deep, internal processing. And, for me, that meant heading to my canvases, paintbrush in hand.
And it was so interesting...
I wasn’t called to start any new pieces, but was guided back to the four pieces that were “on pause.” A blank canvas felt inauthentic and unjust. Probably because, in matters of race relations, we all bring our histories with us. I finished all four pieces in a direction I could have never imagine a few weeks prior.
It wasn’t long after that, that I discovered a series of monoprints I had “completed” back in 2004. I had forgotten all about them. I hadn’t seen them in 16+ years! Back then, those pieces felt finished, complete, self-actualized.
But as I looked at them in current times, I saw that they were calling for an evolution.
So I lined them all up on the wall and instead of blaring music (as I typically do), I turned on the White Fragility audiobook and I processed as I created. Or, maybe more accurately stated, I created in order to process.
This was the result…
“The Law of Thirteen ”
this series of ten was created
As I reflect on these pieces, I am humbled as I realize, more than ever before, that our definitions of “complete”, our definitions of “masterpiece”, our definitions of “beauty” are all informed by and limited to our current state of understanding and level of awareness.
And what if we were all more willing, one day at a time, to understand more deeply instead of defend more harshly? What sort of art could we create and what sort of solutions could we dream up and what sort of communities could we cultivate if we would, more and more, allow our awareness to expand and diversify instead of contract and segregate?
The pieces showcased above are for sale and 50% of the proceeds will be donated in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
To view them each, individually, click here.
To inquire about any of them, send an email to Hello@JessicaWachter.com.
"The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in."
- James Baldwin
Throughout the past few months, as I have sought out to diversify my social media feed, I have discovered so many incredible BIPOC artists, curators, and designers! Their work has been such an inspiration to me!
Showcased below is a few of these amazing individuals!
Sincerely,
