Tiny steps towards the truth.
And a peek at the next painting in progress.
This month I retired a lot (all, actually) of my client illustration work from my portfolio website.
I’ve built and managed my own website for 11 years now. The site has evolved anew 3 times, 4 if you count my Here to There website for my screenprints that I had from 2012-2018(?).
These websites are my tiny corner of the internet that represents me and my work. This most recent iteration of jessicafontenot.com feels the closest to me I’ve achieved. It only took 11 years to figure out how to do that. And it’s taken the same amount of time to make art that feels more me, too.
This creative life I’m building feels like taking tiny steps to the left or right, up or down, moving closer to what the work is meant to be. Screenprinting spurred me to create my random drawing ideas into posters, but then I took a tiny step to the right and just made drawings.
Which became illustration. I did freelance illustration for 5+ years and left a full-time job to do it. I managed it for awhile, did some work I’m quite proud of, but it did not feel sustainable long-term. Illustration fit me well in a lot of ways but still not right. It was a joy to make this work for thoughtful, kind folks.
Some of my favorite illustration jobs:
So now I’m taking another tiny step to the right, from illustration to just art. Art for art’s sake, which is what I secretly always wanted but was too scared to admit. These tiny steps are how I’m finding my way through the work and through life. I know I’m getting closer to what will fit like a glove.
I’ll know it when I find it. Which triggers my brain to fire up this moment in When Harry Met Sally: “I knew the way you know about a good melon.”
work in progress
The next painting for my Under Over 2023 series has begun! It’s 24x48 and is another Texas overpass.
things worth sharing
BOOK: Ladies of the Canyons by Lesley Poling-Kempes - “A true story of remarkable women who left the security and comforts of genteel Victorian society and journeyed to the American Southwest in search of a wider view of themselves and their world.” This book rules!! The women are described as ‘educated, restless and inquisitive.’ Really radical spirits who felt the most free in the extreme wilderness.
QUOTE: “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” -Doris Lessing