JESS WATTS.
Artist, Jess left her high-flying career as an art director in New York to follow her dream to be a painter. Her iconic Wallflower series revives charming old vintage wallpapers and turns them into a thing of beauty. Jess’ paintings explore the concept of female empowerment rather than sexual power. Jess’s vibrant work proves that pretty can be powerful.
MY SIGNATURE STYLE
Joyful, layered, and maximalist. I use a distinct collage style to fuse depictions of the female figure with vibrant textured flowers, botanical wallpaper designs and scenes from nature.
THIS IS MY LIFE’S WORK
I have always known I would end up being a fine artist, but I’m very pleased I took the long road to get here. I worked as a typographer and art director in ad agencies for about 15 years, including a ten-year stint in New York. My background in visual communication and branding has been indispensable to my art practice. This profession is not only highly satisfying creatively, but it also suits my entrepreneurial spirit. I really enjoy running my own business.
dESCRIBE YOUR WORK
My wallpaper collection started aimlessly, I started gathering old rolls from the 1940s and stuffing them in a cardboard box in the corner of my studio. For me, there is an affection for the reuse and re-purposing of things that have been discarded.
The Wallflower series revives these charming old wallpapers and gives them a new voice. We traditionally think of the wallflower as an awkward young girl waiting by the dance floor desperate to be chosen. But beauty is more about the hidden than the revealed. In my work the female forms are cropped as close as the secrets they keep and seeing a body without a face feels voyeuristic and incomplete. Consciously or not, we search for what isn’t there and we want to know more.
The series is about feminine power, but it’s not about sexual power. I wanted to see what happens to feminine identity when you strip away the male gaze. So much of our identities as women are tied to a male perspective of ourselves. This work is an attempt to reclaim femininity as something that can exist without searching for relevance or asking permission.
My work is unashamedly pretty, joyful and connected to nature. Pretty can be powerful and joy can have depth. I am enchanted by colour, birds and flowers and when I am “dressing” my women I think of these subjects as nature’s best accessories. Birds and flowers are usually considered feminine, which helps with my message-making.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND
I was one of those kids who was constantly making things and drawing. When it came time to choose a degree, I was guided away from Fine Arts and towards a Design degree majoring in Visual Communication, mainly due to the pervasive “starving artist” myth. After graduating and working for a few years in Sydney, I ended up working as an advertising art director in New York. So for a while, I enjoyed a fabulous career creating ad campaigns for big brands like Toyota. When I returned to Sydney, the industry was relatively small here, opportunities were limited and the work was less interesting to me, so I decided to switch to fine art. To me, it’s not such a big leap - it’s simply another avenue to create.
I’ve been painting since I was a kid. I had a studio in New York in the 90s way over the West Side of Manhattan, before The High Line was built. I am nostalgic by nature, so when I was in New York I was painting Sydney memories: large older women who frequent the rock pools in Sydney and Australian lifesavers. The thread that’s always run through my work is identity, in particular, gender cliches and turning them into positive parts of ourselves.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
I’m not hugely inspired stylistically by other artists but I am inspired by artists who go their own way and build their businesses without middlemen. My influences are less who, rather what.
I’m inspired by vintage ephemera. Like many artists, I’m a collector. Materials are all around me waiting to be appropriated! I have drawers stuffed with vintage playing cards, old matchbooks, vintage storybooks, retro seed packets and fortunes from every Chinese cookie I ever ate.
I’m inspired by small thoughts, literature/books, I often use lines from F. Scott Fitzgerald novels in my paintings.
I take inspiration from the natural world, flat surfaces are covered with pattern, limbs are elongated, and body parts are slightly exaggerated (I always enlarge the hands slightly to add strength to the figure). I often use collapsed perspective and I aim to delight and surprise with inventive and playful motifs.
I’m inspired by feminine strength.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST?
I grew up in a household of “firstborns” (mother, father and brother, all firstborn). My husband is also a firstborn. I have lived my life around people who are convinced that they know more than me or know better than me. It’s a thing, believe me! I LOVE working for myself. When I’m in my studio, the House of Art in Brookvale nobody is telling me what to do!!
dO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE?
There is always a favourite, but the favourite is often replaced. It’s important to move on and not hold on too tightly to your work.
WHAT’S NEXT?
I have a few things on the boil. I’ve just released a fantastic set of mini prints. I wanted to offer an affordable way for people to have my work in their homes. They are hand-signed and numbered and have a hand-painted canvas wrap.
I’m working on more originals and a couple of custom projects… there might even be a large mural on the horizon.
Contact Jess at www.jessicawatts.com.au or @jessowatts
House of Art, Brookvale
Jess’s artwork is also our Luminary banner image.