MUNTHE ART MONDAY: JESSICA BELLAMY
Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.
My name is Jessica Taylor Bellamy. I’m from Los Angeles, and I am a multidisplinary artist working in oil painting, video, and sculpture. In my work, I explore themes of utopia/dystopia, human/nature, fantasy/reality and the collapsing of time. I have developed a process with traditional oil painting, which involves layers of transparent paint applied with a brush, combined with silkscreens that I create from many different archives and objects.
Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?
I think there is a need to be likable as a woman, which I have suffered from. It bleeds its way into my work. I find myself worried about how I portray myself, especially on Instagram, where I must appear serious without hiding the quirks that make me fun, and are part of who I am.
Can you name some other female (artist) that inspires you and explain why they do so?
I love Emily Mae Smith and Tala Madani so much. I recently had a day in the studio where I just worked and put on artists interviews and talks from Emily. I discovered her in 2015, and she really inspired me to learn how to paint technically. I think her work is helping me think allegorically about how I can keep certain talismans and icons in my work but create some breadth in the physical representation (aka it doesn't always have to be a painting). She often speaks about how she would continue to choose this path, even if it was not taking her to a place of fame or financial security from painting alone. That inner motivation and appreciation for the journey is so important. What is funny about Emliy is that I have not seen her work in person.
Tala is an artist I had the pleasure of meeting and having a personal studio visit with while I was in graduate school at USC Roski in Los Angeles. She went through my studio, gave me feedback about things that I still struggle with, and inspired me to take ownership of my work through titles. She also encouraged me to keep doing my stop-frame animation and told me to stay in touch. I plan on doing that this year when I have more to share with her. Tala had a huge show at MOCA in Los Angeles this year, which was one of my favorite experiences to see and a lesson on how to design an exhibition with multiple videos.
Jessica is wearing LABYRINTH jacket
What would you like people to notice in your artwork?
I think I would like people to notice the beauty then, the density, and the sheer amount of fussiness from the design work in the silkscreens to how they pair with the paintings. There are plenty of picturesque sunsets made uneasy. The mundane and every day is enlarged to monumental proportions, transforming vanity and fleeting moments of American culture into socio-political reflections of the way things are and where they are going.
www.jbellzamy.com
Instagram: jbellzamy
Farah is wearing ARISSA knit and LARCHLIA socks.
