Artist: Jessica Stackhouse
Jessica began at HomeFront’s WorkFirst program in July of 2011 and came to ArtSpace one month after that. She started coming because she wanted to write poetry. It was the first time she had written a poem since she was ten or twelve years old. “I was looking up at the trees and the words started coming to me,” said Jessica. This became the first of many poems to be written while participating in ArtSpace.
After a while she was encouraged to start creating paintings to go along with her poetry. She hadn’t painted before, but realized she was pretty good at it and enjoyed it. Jessica enjoys painting people. One of her first paintings was a self-portrait which inspired her to paint people in her life. She describes her whole family as being artistic in an unconventional sense. She has relatives who do hair, make flower bouquets, design jewelry, and perform cultural dance.
Jessica said, “I try to be different. I don’t like to be the same as everyone else. I never want anything I do to look like the same thing over and over again.” She does art because it’s “a way to express myself without having to think too hard or explain too much. Art is just art.”
After a while she was encouraged to start creating paintings to go along with her poetry. She hadn’t painted before, but realized she was pretty good at it and enjoyed it. Jessica enjoys painting people. One of her first paintings was a self-portrait which inspired her to paint people in her life. She describes her whole family as being artistic in an unconventional sense. She has relatives who do hair, make flower bouquets, design jewelry, and perform cultural dance.
Jessica said, “I try to be different. I don’t like to be the same as everyone else. I never want anything I do to look like the same thing over and over again.” She does art because it’s “a way to express myself without having to think too hard or explain too much. Art is just art.”
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