Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to TERESSA JACKSON. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

TERESSA, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I love what I do and it’s an incredible feeling to be able to get up every day and make and sell art. On one hand, the answer is yes. I majored in painting in college and then immediately said, “well I can’t make a living doing that” and moved on to another career path working in nonprofit management, marketing, and fundraising. Ultimately, however, I think that I started my creative career at just the right time. I had an incredible network of supporters that I had developed over the years in my previous career, maturity and discipline that I lacked at age 20, a new vision for who I wanted to be and a comfort with risk I simply had not yet developed in my younger years. In addition, the technology resources that exist now are a huge benefit to a working artist. Now we can all get our work seen and sold through social media, websites, and other platforms.

TERESSA, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky, painting portraits and imaginary mountain landscapes. I received a bachelor of arts degree in studio art (painting emphasis) from Bellarmine University in 1998, then worked for twenty years in Louisville’s nonprofit sector. In 2017, I returned to my roots, spending a full year traveling the western U.S. and Caribbean and creating over 100 paintings during that journey. My husband and I then relocated to Arizona, where we lived for four years before moving to Costa Mesa, California.

I took a huge risk in changing my entire life, and it has paid off. I paint almost every day and continue to grow as an artist. I primarily paint landscapes in transparent watercolor and gouache (opaque watercolor) and have developed a unique niche of creating miniature paintings. I have always loved detailed work and it’s often difficult for me to know when to stop adding little bits to a painting, but with miniatures, the small space provides a pretty clear restriction. I believe that working in a small scale and incorporating details into my paintings has a lovely effect of making the viewer slow down. To truly see the piece, you must pause and take a moment – something most of us don’t do nearly enough.

My artwork has been featured on the cover of the Tucson Weekly, in ShoutoutArizona and Voyage Phoenix, and has been shown at the Phoenix Airport Museum at Sky Harbor International Airport, FOUND:RE Contemporary, Crystal Cove State Park, the Tubac Center of the Arts, and the Huntington Beach Art Center. I am a juried exhibitor at the Laguna Art-A-Fair and exhibit at The Cottage Gallery in San Juan Capistrano. One of my miniature paintings received the City Hall Choice Award in the 2023 Art That’s Small at City Hall exhibition at Laguna Beach City Hall.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when people actually want to buy your work! Sure, part of this is because we need to make money, but the other part is that a purchase is a huge validation. It’s extremely vulnerable to put your artwork out there for the world to see, over and over again, and today your work can literally be seen by anyone anywhere thanks to technology. Art is personal, both to the artist and to the buyer, and it is a huge boost when someone loves what you created from your heart and soul enough to take it home and make it their own.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

People often ask me how long it took to create a painting. The process for each piece varies a lot and there are many factors that play into that, from just feeling inspired and energized to how distracting your environment is to the difficulty of the subject matter. I don’t punch a time clock, so it’s hard for me to answer. I often work on more than one painting at a time, and because of the nature of watercolor, there quite a few breaks to let paint dry. But above and beyond all of this, the big question most artists ask themselves is, “When do I start this time clock? When I was born? When I drew my first tree? When I earned an art degree? When a gallery took a risk on representing me?” In the end, all the events of our lives as artists and people have made us who we are as creatives and contribute to each piece we create. It’s impossible to quantify all those moments, but our art wouldn’t be what it is without them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TeressaLJackson.com
• Instagram: @teressajacksonart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teressajacksonart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teressaljackson/
• Twitter: @teressajackson

Image Credits
Ursula Schneider, Teressa Jackson