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

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Early in my career as an artist, I was asked to work with an organization called Buzzy’s Bees on a project called Give Grief A Voice. The project works with families who have unexpectedly lost a child by helping them tell their family story. Each family is paired up with an author who interviews them and writes up a beautiful story centered around their child. Then the families choose an artist out of the GGAV artist panel and we are tasked with creating a meaningful piece of artwork that visually represents and honors the family and the child. I have had the opportunity to paint for six families over the past 3 years and it has been an incredibly meaningful and important part of how my art can serve the world. My goal is always to use my art to inspire and bring joy, so knowing that I’m able to provide a new memory, a small spark of joy for the families makes my heart full.

Jessica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an artist at heart and have loved art since I can remember drawing my own pictures to color because I didn’t feel right “using someone else’s picture” in a coloring book. But, as the world works and adulthood loomed, I went to collage to get a sensible job and become a nurse. I did love nursing and helping people, but my tender empath heart struggled leaving the death, sadness and stress of the work at the hospital at the end of my shifts. Thankfully, I was able to stay home with my 2 sons a few years later and greatly enjoyed the change of pace from pushing meds & gurneys to pushing strollers and squealing happy babies on swings! As my boys grew and I had more time to reflect on what I wanted to do, art slowly crept back into my life. At that point I don’t think I had opened a sketchbook in years! I started creating mandalas, something I had never attempted before, and found a great sense of peace and quiet in the meditative manner of creating. Those mandalas quickly turned into a little adult coloring book business after much urging from my friends & family who wanted to get their hands (and colored pencils!) on my pen&ink designs.
At this point, I realized art might be the thing to turn my attention toward full time. An avenue I’d always wanted to learn was watercolor, so I set a goal of taking an online class as part of a list of 40 Things to do Before Turning 40. After a few months of practice, I really started to enjoy the new skill and people started asking me to do commissioned pieces for them.
Now, 5 years later, I paint nearly every day and have focused in on my own personal style. I love knowing that friends, family and now even strangers I’ve never met, have pieces of my work on their walls and even as tattoos on their skin! My style is whimsical and fun, bright and happy. I love combining watercolor with fine line pen work and I do everything from detailed illustrative pieces to quirky abstracts. Often times I’ll get the idea for my pieces during meditation, from my dreams or ideas will sometimes suddenly ping into my head without rhyme or reason! I love that in art, there are no rules, no strict confines that shove you into a box and tell you what or who to be. Just like I said when I was little, don’t give me the lines and tell me to stay between them, I want to create my own!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

One of the most rewarding things is when I create a piece of art that I feel is just for me. Often I feel like it’s too quirky or weird for most people, but time and time again, those are the pieces that people love the most! When I’m creating for the pure love of creating and putting the piece together without overthinking or trying to force it to be something it’s not, that is when the true magic happens! Getting the share that love in paint, paper and ink with people, sharing that joy with others, is incredibly rewarding!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.jessicajohnsdesign.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/jessicajohnsdesign

Image Credits
Professional photos by Bridgetown Pictures