AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 11

ARTISTS & ARTISANS
While learning to define herself as an artist with a capital A, Jessica’s education had become
a process of internalization without analysis. And though school was the site of her inculcation, it
would also provide inspiration for her to begin questioning again. “I was a senior, and I had to pick
a capstone project,” she says. “I was lucky in that my my teacher, right away, wanted to know about
my background, and he nudged me towards a project that required more deep-dive research into my
own culture.”
The realization that she wasn’t making space for who she was in her work revealed to Jessica just
how much she’d needed to. After that, there was no stopping her. “I just dove right in,” she says. “I
took a trip to Haiti, I visited all of these different artisans who were working with metals and ceramics
and doing just incredible work.”
Making the turn towards her own culture in her work and her expression has helped Jessica to
unify the disconnected strands of herself, connecting the artist she is today with the little girl in Haiti
who ran and played with her sister, creating worlds out of leaves. “I really feel like I would not be who
I am today if it wasn't for Haiti,” she says, “if I did not have those experiences, because they're just so
vivid and such a part of who I am. Haiti is in everything that I do, but I can't pinpoint where it is. Every
little thing that I touch, and every little thing that I create; in my being, in everything that I am and
how I create, and how I think, I just know that it's there.” The process of reconnecting was revelatory
and healing, two elements Jessica strives to achieve through her work today and in her evolving
approach to sculpting.
“I think in a sculpture, the gesture is super important,” she begins, describing the goals and approaches
that govern her work. “That sort of essence of what you're trying to get at or the movement
that you're trying to capture. That's first and foremost the most important thing, so that's that's what
I try to do in my work.” That sense of essence or intonation that she works to evoke is a tricky thing.
Played too abstractly it can become unrecognizable, but in a sculpture that’s too realistic, it can get
lost in the details, which leaves Jessica in a place of constant editing. “At the moment my work is
probably closer to abstract,” she reflects. “It's definitely not hyper realistic, because I did not have this
specific person in front of me that I wanted. I was sculpting someone that I created from my mind.”
The most recent results of Jessica’s imaginings are Jamal and Keisha, a pair of plaster busts that
she’s creating in limited editions, as the inaugural artist for AphroChic’s art shop on Wayfair and
Perigold. Less representations of specific people, these highly evocative pieces are more amalgams
of the parts of ourselves the artist feels that we too often overlook. “Keisha has the most peaceful expression
on her face,” she smiles. "She’s all calm, cool, collected Black feminine power.” And in Jamal
she sees that, “he’s this strong Black male. But he's also soft and caring and insightful and smart.
He has all those amazing characteristics that so many Black men have, and we just don't talk about
them that often. My dad was like that.” In showing us the parts of ourselves that we don’t typically see
reflected, Jessica hopes not only to fill in the gaps of how we see ourselves, but give us the full range of
options as we consider who we want to be. “I need to be a little bit more like Keisha myself sometimes
when I'm stressed out,” she laughs.
A Black man without conflict, a Black woman at peace. Simple images, yet revolutionary in their
rejection of the story of us as it is commonly told to us — sometimes by ourselves. The challenges of
an internalized, Eurocentric view that Jessica has worked to overcome in her evolution as an artist
are not unique to art. And the work of untangling it from our perspectives is not hers alone. “At this
phase, I think that if I'm going to create any art, I want it to stem from that place of undoing a little bit,
a little bit at a time, and just really embracing, embracing and learning and opening myself up even
more, because I do think so much more will come out of my work.” AC
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