We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Eichman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.

Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My most meaningful project is the one I am creating now. After painting in the abstract expressionist tradition for many years, I have recently begun to incorporate symbolic imagery into my work. The change began during the pandemic when I began to notice symbolic shapes and images showing up in my abstract paintings. At the time I was interested in unobstructed emotional expression—gestural work that came directly from the body and the heart without passing through the thinking mind. The new symbolic images seemed too intentional to me, so I rejected them, painting them out whenever they would show up. After a while, this began to create conflict within me and I found myself at odds with my own creative process. I went through a time of feeling empty and uninspired. Blaming it on the pandemic and forced isolation, I missed the fact that my work was asking to change, and I was fighting it. Eventually, I began to allow these symbolic images in, and once I fully opened to the transformation, a whole new world began to open to me.

The thing that I find so fascinating about symbols and archetypes is that they are simultaneously subjective and objective—their meaning is both unique to the individual based on their own personal experience; and universal, reaching through time, culture, and place. Throughout human history, in mythology, fairy tales, sacred texts, literature, and all forms of visual art, people have used symbols to tell stories, to represent abstract ideas, and to try to understand unknowable mysteries. The throughline of the symbol unites us in our human experience, and seems to suggest a collective consciousness, a symbolic language that is ubiquitous to all people, while still being uniquely individual.

The symbols that resonate most deeply with me are the ones that show up repeatedly. They emerge in dreams, meditative visions, and in waking life. Paying attention to them has not only helped me to be aware of symbolic meaning and context, but has also given me a sense of wonder and curiosity in my daily life. Through observing the patterns and interactions of symbolic forms in my environment and my art, I have more clarity on my own experience. In this way, personal symbology and myth-making have helped me to know myself better.

My current work is a hybrid, which unifies my abstract expressionist roots with a language of symbolic imagery that has been developing over the last several years. My paintings are still unplanned and intuitive, but now they include an element of storytelling that remains subjective enough to allow a viewer to weave their own narrative around the shapes and images. As the viewer you are invited to create your own adventure and allow these compositions to become what you make them. What they mean is exactly what they mean to you.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. My primary medium is painting, and I also work in textiles, mixed media, and 3D (I have a permanent steel sculpture in Hermitage Park in Nashville). In recent years my abstract work has shifted to include symbolic imagery of the conscious and subconscious realms.

I was fortunate to be born into a family of artists, writers, and musicians, and was encouraged to make things from a very young age. My parents were of the 60’s hippie generation, and during my childhood we lived a fairly nomadic life, moving frequently. By the time I entered the ninth grade, I had attended eight different schools in various parts of the country. Being the perpetual new kid made me aware of cultural nuance, the role of community, and my place in the world. Seeing culture as an invisible force constantly at work in the way people relate to each other and themselves, I could also sense the elements of human experience that lie outside our cultural haze—the aspects of life that are universal to all people; the commonalities that unite us in our humanity. This theme is a huge influence on my work.

My creative practice is a reflection of my general philosophy of life, which is basically: Show up and pay attention. Because my paintings are unplanned, my process is based on being present and dialoguing with the work as it weaves itself into existence. I make a mark, stand back, and let the work speak to me. Then I respond, and the conversation keeps going. It is a balance of control and surrender. If there is an overarching theme to my work, then it is about letting go; letting go of expectations, rules, desire, and fear. It requires a leap of faith, a willingness to fail, and a belief that the simple act of mixing paint and slathering it onto a canvas will eventually turn into something meaningful.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had trusted my own internal resources earlier in my journey. For too many years I worried about how my work was judged by an audience or a marketplace. It is so tempting to think: if someone is buying my work then it must be good, and if sales dry up then the work must be bad. That is putting all my power in the hands of an anonymous imaginary external critic. As I ripen into middle age, I am finally finding myself at the center of my own creative process. I am making work that feels resonant and authentic to me, and if it touches just one person, then that is enough.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding thing about being an artist is also the hardest thing: I am in charge. The creative path is mysterious and winding; there are no blueprints for achieving success as an artist. There is no salary, no standard measure of accomplishment; in fact, the very idea of success as an artist is totally subjective. To me, a successful artist is one who expresses their experience with vulnerable authenticity, and who creates in service to something larger than themselves. There is no guarantee of income or recognition of hard work. But there is freedom to follow your whim, explore the inner and outer realms, to live fully, to play, and to share your experience with others. What a gift!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jessicaeichman.com
• Instagram: @jessicaeichman https://www.instagram.com/jessicaeichman/

Image Credits

Kyla O’Neal