Jessica Hess
NOLA Sunset, 2020

oil on canvas
38”H x 48”W

ARTWORK STATEMENT:

My work explores the surreal, emergent qualities found in abandoned architecture. These forgotten places have become creative playgrounds for artists working alongside unchecked nature. Things once built to last, eventually fall. I embrace this cycle of construction and desertion, creation and neglect, growth and decay. I aim to preserve these unconventional museums and their transitory works; through my paintings I question free speech, free space, freedom of expression, censorship, the temporary state of our being, and the awesome power of nature.

Artist Bio:

Jessica Hess is a hyperreal painter who travels often to explore the urban landscape and seek out new subject matter. She received a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and has been pursuing a fine-art career ever since. Hess has exhibited nationally and internationally. Hess grew up in North Carolina and also lived for years in Massachusetts and Rhode Island before heading west to California in 2009. She and her better half now own a creative commercial space in Oakland, California.