Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie-lyn Della Selva

Hi Jamie-lyn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

My mother was an artist. When my sister and I were little, she would draw for us, sort of on demand; things like her version of Cinderella, mermaids, princesses and princes (our requests). I would carefully watch her draw – her pencil on the paper, how she started and how she finished. I was in awe of how perfect it was. I have a very clear memory of one day, I must have been four or five years old, she was busy at the kitchen table making phone calls, but I kept begging her to draw a princess for me, This time, she showed me how to start the drawing, explaining so that I would learn and remember to do it myself. She instructed, patiently, to start with the head, and then each line following after just cascading to create an entire figure. From that point on, I felt like I knew a secret in how to begin a drawing – something that I think a lot of people overthink. This mini lesson is something I have used going forward from that point on anytime I drew anything.
She died when I was six years old. My entire world shattered in every possible way that one can imagine for a child, but I held onto the things that she taught me and said to me from the time we had together. I started to draw in school, partly to remember her through making art. I was fairly emotionally turbulent because of losing her and the instability of our lives afterwards and I turned to art as a connection to her. I didn’t realize that this was emotionally charged for me or that I could use art as expression, but I excelled in my art classes because drawing meant connecting with her, and therefore, I put a lot of myself into it. At age 9, an art teacher suggested to my father that I take advanced art classes outside of school. I remember walking in to the first lesson, which had all adults in the room. Some even laughed when I entered, I assume because of my age as I was the youngest. But when I started to draw, which was a bird perched on a branch, there was no more laugher because it did not look like a child’s drawing – it was in fact better than most of their drawings. I felt a lot of confidence from this one memory, and art became the one thing I knew I was completely capable of that no one could take away from me. My self esteem was poor as a kid due to different experiences, but never with art. My father, my sister and I moved almost every year, but without fail the art teachers at each school were always my best friends and who I opened up to. By high school, my art had become very emotional, very personal, and somewhat dark. I was guided by my high school art teacher, Mrs. Blumer, to fearlessly express myself. She told me that I was a “true artist”, not because of skill, but because of what was inside of me. For four years, She guided me to do whatever I felt to do in her classes. I had a separate, free-range experience than the other students. Any thought, no matter how dark, no matter what others would judge, she just said to do it. I developed my own style, expression, confidence, and ability to understand myself through her push of embracing personal expression. Without her, I don’t know if I would be the artist that I am today. I was extremely quiet in highschool , not out of shyness – I think more so out of sadness, however I was very loud in my artwork and became known through the school for my art. People would stop me in the halls and bathroom, even the popular kids, and they would tell me that my work was “amazing”, and that they admired it. It was a surprising way to connect with other students who wouldn’t otherwise talk to each other. Mrs. Blumer also pushed me to go to art school after I graduated – something I’d never considered as my father was not the type to believe in that sort of thing. He was an electrician, he believed in learning a trade, though I knew he was proud of me because he always told everyone that I was an artist.
Mrs.Blumer was a wonderful source of inspiration for me to believe in myself and crack myself open – without her I think that I wouldn’t have had the same confidence to say what I want to say when making art. I don’t think of other people when creating my work. Art became my connection to my mother, and most of the time the only way, that I could express myself completely.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

It has not been a smooth road and I don’t really believe in a smooth road for artists. I went to school with the idea that I had to choose a career and use my artistic skills rather than just “make art” – so I went for Fashion Design in New York City. That felt so empty somehow, and cutthroat – it’s just not who I was. So I changed to studying illustration. That meant making other people’s ideas through my art which I either consciously or subconsciously rejected – my art is mine, I make it for myself, so I just *wouldn’t* do it. I kept telling myself I could not just “do” Fine Art – so I spent years trying to figure out what to do. I went into editorial makeup artistry – so that I could do my art on the side as I hoped that a freelance work life could allow this , while I used my artistic skills again in a different way, and I was quite good at it. But there is the superficiality of it all that I just again, rejected. And I had no time to make art. It took many years to accept that I do not want to make art for other people on their terms – I just want to make my art. American society especially pushes the idea of career on people, and it confused me for many years. My goal now is to have my own studio where art is made for pleasure and not for acceptance. You have to find out what kind of artist you are and how to exist in modern times and that is not easy at all.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

My work is essentially a visual diary of the things I see and feel within myself and for others. I am very interested in how other people are – what is affecting them, their emotional states of being, and how you can see this on their faces or in their energy. I am also interested in how children process emotional trauma, and draw or paint this often. I suppose I am proud of not caring how what I create affects other people’s impression of me – I really, truly don’t care. I don’t care if you think it is good or bad art, and I don’t care if you like it. I make it for me, and I hope that people that need to express themselves in their own world feel something that meets them internally when looking at my words or images.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?

I feel like a museum is the best resource of inspiration to create and feel moved by. Reading about the artists or designers you admire and the road they had to take in their lives, their obstacles and how or if they met their goals, will also teach you a great deal about what it truly is to follow a passion.

Contact Info:

• Website: In the works
• Instagram: Fino.Alla.Fine.di.Noi

Image Credits

The photo of the woman drawing outside is my mother and it might help to reference this in a caption somewhere. Her name is Paula.