Jessica Lewis

Jessica Lewis is a figurative artist who creates enchanting and curious portraits of childhood. Shortly after completing her education, Lewis worked for a time creating large-scale murals and fantastic, other worldly environments primarily for children and families. They created a sense of wonder and imagination. These experiences and even more importantly, those with her children provide the backbone for her ideas. As they grow, Lewis is reminded of things from her own childhood. She draws on both to create portraits that are also self-portraits, and ones that begin to invoke conversations about the differences between generations. The experiences being in some ways universal and also fleeting. Whether good or bad, childhood it is one of the rare things that binds us all. 

Lewis credits her mother as being one of her earliest influences in art. "My mother is an artist and teacher and has always been an out of the box thinker in terms of how she makes art. She is always creating, and no material is off limits. Because of this, I tend to think a lot in terms of metaphors, stories and building a painting that's layered in meaning." Lewis studied painting at the University of Louisville, KY. After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, she then continued at Southern Illinois University, IL to complete her Master of Fine Arts in painting. 

Jessica Lewis has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions throughout the United States. In 2018, she was awarded second place in the Portrait Society of America's Members competition, Outside the Box category, as well as finalist in the commissioned portrait category. She currently lives in Nashville, TN where she continues her work, teaching and creating commissioned portraits.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.