We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessie Xu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jessie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

As someone who wasn’t born in the U.S. but studied and started my art career here, my experience has been quite unique. I was born and raised in China, where the culture and aesthetics are very different from those in the U.S. If I hadn’t studied overseas, I would have missed a lot in broadening my perspective and seeing the bigger picture. This cultural exchange has been incredibly meaningful for both my art and my personal growth. But I wasn’t “aware” enough when the decision to live abroad was made—it was my parents.

I always knew I wanted to be an artist, but besides that, as a 14-year-old just about to transition from middle school to high school, I didn’t have a clear plan for my future. All I knew was that I wanted to draw. Around that time, my parents suddenly started taking me to various exams. I went along with it without thinking too much, and later, I received offers from international schools. That’s when I realized I had a big decision to make: in the near future, I’d be far from home, heading to a completely unfamiliar place. I had never considered this before—it felt sudden. I wasn’t against it, but I wasn’t mentally prepared for it either. I knew very little about other countries, especially Western culture.

Then my mom and I had a conversation:
“Do you want to study abroad? I think you’d thrive exploring the world outside.”
“Sure, but I want to draw things. I was planning to join those professional art training programs in high school and apply to art school.”
“You can study visual arts abroad too!”
“Oh, that works.”

And since then, a new path opened up for me. Looking back now, it was a great decision. Gaining a deep understanding of cultural diversity and how different cultures influence one another has shaped my unique perspective and style as a person and as an artist. As I absorbed these cultures, I was able to merge them into my own approach, which has become a core part of who I am today. I’m grateful for my parent’s guidance and support, which allowed me to see so much more of the world at such a young age, and also for being so supportive of my dream of being an artist.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi! My name is Jessei Xu. I’m a portrait painter and illustrator based in NYC. I was born and raised in Shanghai, and I went to art school in New York. I recently graduated from SVA majoring in illustration. I specialize in realistic oil paintings, mostly portraits of people and animals. Besides oil painting, I also enjoy creating cute digital illustrations to channel my creative energies.

Lately, I’ve been working as a freelancer doing oil portrait commissions. Hey! I do very good portraits for people and their pets, please check me out.

Many people say I paint beautiful eyes, which has become one of my signature traits. This is actually due to the emphasis on “the expression of eyes“ in East Asian culture. As I mentioned, I am influenced by diverse cultures. In Confucian philosophy, eye contact is a subtle way of expressing respect and emotion. That’s why in art, we often highlight the eyes more than other facial features. On the other hand, Western classical oil painting techniques emphasize “contrast,” whether it’s the contrast of values or the vibrancy of colors. They also focus on the contrast between soft and hard edges with great care. For example, a slightly harder edge rendering can make the shape stand out a lot more than a softer one. A good control of this contrast in detail can make the painting look natural and feel good to look at. That is to say, I did voluntarily or subconsciously used Western techniques to achieve the Eastern goal of “using the eyes to capture the spirit and inner qualities.” That’s also one of the reasons I chose portraiture as my career- I discovered that I have some talent for capturing the essence of a person or animal.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I think NFTs have nothing to do with actual artwork, they’re just another game for finance people with some visual elements attached. The idea of “irreplaceability” doesn’t really make sense from an artistic perspective. I mean, every art is irreplaceable. For most artists, NFT basically means scam. Most of us don’t want to go near them. There are always people trying to contact artists on Instagram, pushing them to get involved with NFTs, and 99% of those offers aren’t legit.

I remember 2 or 3 years ago, NFTs were everywhere, but now they’ve kind of disappeared. When I first heard about them, I thought it might signal growing societal awareness of copyright in the art world. But the overblown hype around NFTs as “a way for artists to make bank” felt off. If everyone knows it’s a way to make a lot of money, then it is not the right way to make a lot of money.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Everything I do at the moment is aimed at improving my work! I don’t just finish what my clients ask me to do, I’m always trying new things and experimenting stuff, trying to see if I can do better than last time. My goal is to level up on every commission, like a video game, +1 +1 +1. I’m not the type of artist who is good at expressing deep emotions that resonate with viewers. Instead, I’m more comfortable with developing concepts or diving into something technical, like spending a long time perfecting a detail. Well that makes me sound like an art nerd. At the end of the day, I just simply enjoy the process of painting. The better my technique, the less time I have to spend hesitating, and the more I can enjoy the painting process, which is good! When I see masters’ paintings in museums, I gasp and wonder how they did them. I hope that one day I’ll be able to create art that makes me gasp at my own work too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jessiexart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artist_jessie/

Image Credits

Models: Nina, Peter, Titi, Dafu, Kris, Rouchka