"Follow on IG @madzetetic"
When I first moved into my space at C3 Lab, one of the first artists I took note of was Jessica Prescott. She had a lot of photography work in her space. But the images had poems collaged to them. They were cut out and sewn into. It was more than photography. It was beautiful. It was just the type of thing I want to do with my images, but the final result is nothing like what I want my finished work to be. I could be inspired without copying!
Almost immediately after moving into my space – well, possibly right before, Jessica starting to switch her focus from photography to painting. But she wasn’t creating images of representational things with color. She was just exploring painting. Exploring what paint does. Working with the paint - pouring it on the surface, pulling paint, scraping paint. Sometimes unmoved by the painting she made, she'd completely cover it with more paint, and continue carving into the paint. Gluing things onto the paint.
Of the 8 or 9 artists I share the space with, Jessica is among the people I see most frequently. I enjoy our conversations, and we often discuss her new endeavors in painting. She doesn’t always seem to know the desired result of her explorations, and she often doesn’t like the "finished product". She just knows that she enjoys the process, so she keeps going until she reaches a pleasing result. It is an intuitive, whimsical, and earnest process. She doesn’t appear to over-think it. It seems very Zen.
That’s something I’m a fan of. Commit to your creative process and enjoy it. I don’t think it’s our job to judge the things we are fascinated with. I think our job is to follow our fascinations. Follow them and allow them to teach us something about ourselves or present circumstances. What do these fascinations mean? Are they helpful or harmful? How do people connect with them? As we learn the significance of what we are doing, how can we do it better?
So, that is something I want to do more. Plant the seed. Water the seed. Watch to see what fruit it produces.
She is also doing something cool with worms.