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

Veronica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Prior to making art I collected art, which allowed me to cultivate generative relationships with established visual artists. During a memorable conversation with an artist-friend, I lightheartedly said, “I think I have a piece of art in me that wants to come out.” He wisely said, “Veronica you have more than one piece of art in you.” It was a profound statement that stayed with me and in some ways gave me the confidence to contemplate a “making” practice; because at that time, I did not believe I was worthy or talented enough to create and/or produce art. That mindset changed once I attended the Visual and Critical Studies graduate program at CCA, San Francisco. During that journey, I learned the value of critically interrogating visual culture. As a result, I acknowledged the existence of stories within me that required critical examination and visual expression. However the true “lightbulb” moment came during my first artist residency. At Santa Fe Art Institute, I was presented with the opportunity to submit an artwork for a group exhibition. By visually articulating an incident of invisibility enacted upon me, I created Language of Invisibility on Display, an artwork consisting of black text on black felt bulletin boards. Subsequently, using black on black materials to visualize invisibility became a signature element in my artmaking practice.

Veronica, 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?

My background encompasses architecture and museum exhibition design. Both of these disciplines greatly inform my visual art practice which critically examines the lives of Black women. My work is oftentimes autobiographical and always uses historic resources as its foundation. These “archives” range from my personal family history—gleaned from interviews with my mother and aunts—to research about the lives of 19th century Black women—conducted at repositories such as the Library of Congress. I utilize text, familiar objects, and various materials in clever ways to broadcast Black women’s languages of invisibility, hypervisibility (an exaggerated visibility subject to misidentification and mislabeling), devaluation, and triumph. From felt-lined bulletin boards and hair, to paper, glass, and extra fine glitter, my artwork focuses on the portrayal, perception, and legacy of Black women in popular media.
My initial and ongoing project—The Burden of Invisibility—is the physical manifestation of my evolution from designer to visual artist, as well as a reaction to the world around me. This body of work constantly evolves as more individual, yet integrated artworks are incorporated into its realm. The Burden of Invisibility displays efforts employed to combat an environment indoctrinated to view me through a singular stereotyped lens, or not see me at all.
I am proud to consider myself a public historian; my work educates people about unstudied and devalued Black women, as well as little-known aspects of Black womanhood in America. I am also proud of my role as cultural producer; in other words, as a visual artist I record, interpret, and make aware the complexities in which humans exist and affect their surroundings.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I believe that studying visual culture elicits transformation. Thus the goal of my artwork is to illustrate the ways in which visual culture incites the imagination to see the world differently. As a cultural producer and public historian, my practice is also a performance in social justice, which I define as the fight to reclaim my body, to live and love my truth, and to reveal to anyone who has ever felt disenfranchised or “othered” that they may do the same.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I have in the past, and in some ways am still combatting the fear of making mistakes. I was raised in a strict environment that demanded unobtainable perfection; most anything I did was considered a mistake. Thus I am constantly unlearning to be fearful of applying that initial mark on paper, of pulling that first flood of ink across the screen, or writing that first convoluted sentence that describes my artwork. I had to also unlearn that acknowledging my greatness or bringing attention to myself was wrong. These concepts stem from lessons that made me fearful, small, and voiceless, because as a little Black girl reared in the latter half of the 20th century, my people taught me that silence and anonymity meant safety. Now through my artwork and in contrast to those teachings, I combat those racist and misogynistic definitions of safety by rendering visually vocal and readily apparent articulations of Black womanhood.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jacksondesigngroup.com/veronica-jackson
• Instagram: @veronicadcjackson
• Other: https://vimeo.com/1009235026
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU7sFG9M8PM

Image Credits

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Photo credit: Taylor Irby/The News & Advance

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Language of Invisibility on Display
Photo credit: Courtesy the artist.

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BLACKTIVISTS
Photo credit: Courtesy the artist.

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BLACKTIVISTS
Photo credit: Courtesy the artist.

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BLACKTIVISTS
Photo credit: Courtesy the artist.

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BLACKTIVISTS
Photo credit: David Hunter Hale; https://davidhunterhale.com/#h-o-m-e.

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A Constellation of Blackness: Rendering Invisibility, Hypervisibility, Devaluation, and Triumph (TRIUMPH)
Photo credit: Courtesy the artist.

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THAT’S POPS’S MONEY
Photo credit: Courtesy the artist.

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THAT’S POPS’S MONEY
Photo credit: Jean Wibbens Photography.