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Jessica McGhee

Gallery


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Metta...

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Ever-Evolution

This piece reflects my lived experiences and my journey into becoming an art therapist. As a whole-self, I embody multiple traumas and the strength to persist despite those impacts on my overall well-being. My face is my terrain which engages with the world, is a mother and a woman determined to help others who have also experienced the devastating impacts of trauma, whether it be intergenerational, systemic, and/or rooted in intimate partner violence. Trauma is a poison on our bodies, our minds and our collective whole. We cannot advance into our highest selves while consumed with the impacts of trauma.

 

This mask was hand-built, beginning with a plaster mold of my face. Then resurfaced and sculpted with air dry clay, which caused tension when combined with the

plaster. This tension caused the surface to crack, like the dry and barren desert fault lines; scars at the base level were sustained. Yet these scars were able to mend and become a part of the mask’s emotional and physical landscape. They were able to be built from, and evolved from. As are we all. Next, I applied colors of the deep sea, with flowing seaweed, balancing the habitat. Resilience. The markings around the eyes are the warrior face presentation, maintaining the clear sight, overcoming adversity and maintaining the core-self so that I may fight for the catharsis others. This fight through healing trauma is not something that can be done alone. Throughout time we have needed one another, we would not have evolved to where we are today if we were a solitary species. We need one another at a cellular level and can end up very ill of we are restricted to isolation. Fighting for the well-being of one another is what we all need for communal healing, through all the many different forms of trauma that have been passed through our species. The painted fabric symbolizes community, and those I seek to work with. Our very many complex, dynamic, and beautiful selves. The blood ruby is a symbol of my life energy, which I seek to emit and share.

 

This ever-evolving mask represents myself in a myriad of ways and has tracked my evolution from a Fine Artist and Teaching Artist, to Art Therapist.

Ever-Evolution

Ever-Evolution

Hand-built mask

Mixed media sculpture

12” x 6”x 4”

May 2022

Private Collection

Currently on display at the

Redhouse Arts Center, Syracuse, NY

through March 24, 2023

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Fête Noir

Created for the joint celebration of Fête Noir hosted by the Community Folk Art Center and Black Artist Collective of Syracuse, NY.

Mixed Media on wood coin

24" diameter x 1"

February 2022

Prints available for purchase

Permanent Collection of Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY

Currently on display at the Redhouse, Syracuse, NY through March 24, 2023

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Mother Sun

Shining heat

Down upon our gleaming faces

Creation brims festering within our predestination

Light feeding heat,

     feeding flowers,

     and all we eat;

feeding the you in me.

The sun carries necessary benefit for our nerves, muscles, immune systems, skeletal structures, and mind's eye.

Basking in the sun, resting under the shade of the tree, watching the clouds slowly glide through the tides of sky.

Through the tides of you and I.

Mother Sun...

Mother Sun

Mixed Media on Wood

24”x 36”

August 2019

Available for purchase $1,750

Prints available for purchase

Currently on display at the 

Please contact for further details

Currently on display at the Redhouse, Syracuse, NY through March 24, 2023

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Roots

Bījā Satya

Mixed Media on Paper

11" x 17"

June 2020

Prints available for purchase

Currently on display at the Redhouse, Syracuse, NY through March 24, 2023

Please contact for pricing details

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The Winds, They Fly

Oil and Ink on a Secondhand Map

8”x 12”

July 2019

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for further details

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With Love

Mixed Media on Wood

24”x 36”

August 2019

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for further details

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Implicit Resiliency

Trees

Bearing all witness

The eyes of nigh tidal waves

Whilst we dance under our Sun

And see in blades of shale and green

 

For you,

I stand here

Heart Open to the Sky

For my truth lies within your witness

For all eyes to see

within the ripples of waves

through humanity

 

You nourish, you feed

So that we may breathe

The Giving Tree,

You to me and thee.

 

Where are we in this toxic night?

You cause our psyches to sight clearly.

You thrust us into

implicit resiliency.

 

Plasticity frees us 

from the utterly unsightly.

 

For our trees, we owe our everything

Yet we cut you down

Over and over, we orphan ourselves

As we remove you from our hills and plains.

 

Plant more.

Bask more; I ask.

Within her grasps,

Heal your mind,

Underneath the apple tree.

© Copyright May 2019 Jessica McGhee, Divine Wanderings. All Rights Reserved. #aspiretoinspirelove

Implicit Resiliency

Oil on Wood

Plein Air Observation

Stony Pond State Forest

Erieville, NY

24”x 48”

May 2019

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for further details

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These Rings

Rings through truth

of time

Thine's mind

Seeking to sea in

Breathe in

Sila

Radiance of the Sun

Basking our truths

Through the air

We glide

Re-Search your poisons

Educate your eyes

Sense the vibrations

You pass

Seek the light in your truth.

Pass not forward the abuse 

into your youth.

Sensing tangibly

Tangible, in this existence

Step one within

these many rings

On this never-ending path

toward enlightenment.

© Copyright July 2018 Jessica McGhee, Divine Wanderings. All Rights Reserved. #aspiretoinspirelove

These Rings

Mixed Media on Paper

11" x 14"

July 2018

Prints available for purchase $500

Please contact for further details

Currently on display at the Redhouse, Syracuse, NY through March 24, 2023

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The Sacred Art of Rising

 

The Fight

Burning within Me

Brings me through my days and out 

Of the abysses of noxious transgressions

 

As many have set out to claim their territories and eyes

They pay less mind to the actuality of

Cries 

 

We exist and sense to ward off that which would harm us

Though we have evolved past the primordial perils of our ancestors

And seep that vigilance into unnecessary truths

Intergenerational abuse

Tainting the eyes of our youth

 

Shake off that sludge

Sit in quiet

Witness yourself breathing

Expand your gray matter

See life more coherently

 

Walk amongst the trees

Take a seat and fall into your sights

See actually

Tend your wounds and do not pass them on

 

See your youth and empower them

To see their truth

And bask in the beauty of their self.

Elevate all who surround you, for our kin are sacred.

© Copyright May 2019 Jessica McGhee, Divine Wanderings. All Rights Reserved. #aspiretoinspirelove

The Sacred Art of Rising

Mixed Media on Wood

36”x 96”

Spring 2019

Original Painting available for purchase $3,500

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

Currently on display at the Redhouse, Syracuse, NY through March 24, 2023

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 Lexical Priming The currents of altered life’s dangling things hath carried thou away Into the frosty seas of lines Thus this time pines for that of the unbroken self, selves Eyes, the framing sees, frame the soul outstrung among the trees Dangling in light of the stars Masses burning among far flung fires Imprisoned Raging with passion Dying in love This eye seeks to lay the truth out to dry For we are all wandering, decaying, escapading towards our sights Dwindle and circle in and around This thing We call life. The siren of the soul carries one throughout the skies Dancing on the vibrations set current by water’s tides Who are we, as we step up? Leap into Sights of The Soul. Our light carries, and lights yours.. For we are all here for one another. In this, at times, dark and dreary place, Bask in it all, we must See the Lights of Us, we must Follow Truth and your Highest Good, we must Cast aside The capitalist prisons of sense, Cast away The slave labor of the day. We are here to

Lexical Priming

The currents of altered life’s dangling things hath carried thou away Into the frosty seas of lines
Thus this time pines for that of the unbroken self, selves
Eyes, the framing sees, frame the soul outstrung among the trees Dangling in light of the stars

Masses burning among far flung fires Imprisoned
Raging with passion
Dying in love

This eye seeks to lay the truth out to dry

For we are all wandering, decaying, escapading towards our sights Dwindle in, circle in, and around
This thing
We call existence.

The siren of the soul carries one throughout the skies

Dancing on the vibrations set current by water’s tides

Who are we, as we step up?

Leap into Sights of The Soul.

Our light carries, and lights yours..
For we are all here for one another.
In this, at times, dark and dreary place, Bask in it all, we must
See the Lights of Us, we must

Follow Truth and your Highest Good, we must Cast aside
The capitalist prisons of sense,
Cast away

The slave labor of the day.

We are here to effect change of the mightiest of decay.
We are here to save our souls from a loss of the innate and free mingling wanderlust. To experience with sight in lucid operations.
To perceive Soul and Sense
With the Self, the Loves, and the Wander.

© Copyright December 2017 Jessica McGhee Olech, Divine Wanderings. All Rights Reserved. #aspiretoinspirelove

Lexical Priming

Mixed Media on Wood

48" x 96"

December 2017

Original Painting available for purchase

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

Currently on display at the Redhouse, Syracuse, NY through March 24, 2023

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On Coexistence

Sweeping Aves
Thinking reflectively
With eyes soaring our skies 

They watch us 

 

As we change their lands, 

Subtract
Their habitats,
War one another 

For disconnects in Cultural Perception
For land which belongs to all of the existence here. 

 

“It’s mine!”
Shout our children,
As we reinforce the notion with each possession 

we secure. 

 

Living breathing, 

as we all are,
and do. 

 

As our last white rhino fancied 

Prior to his final release. 

 

Whales seeking their last breaths 

While dying painfully slow in our nets,

Stomachs full of our want-nots.

 

 

Kids of color dying for possessing the 

Shiny black 

Latest Technology 

    Produced by our competing
    Capitalist Means of Production owners 

    (slave owners with better manners)

 

We are lost in consumerism,
inadequate wages and insufficient funds. 

 

The top 1% reserving 82% of the income for who’s actual subsistence? 

 

No, it wasn’t a gun.
Just another cell phone. Thank you for your business! 

 

 

We aren’t who you think we are,
Nor are we as the media and movies depict. 

We carry no suicide vests; 

Rather compassion, warmth, love 

And forgiveness-
For our fellows’ xenophobia. 

 

 

Even though the real terror and extremism is home grown, 

right out of our own confederate backyard. 

So many different sides to fear.

 

The birds, they watch 

They see us 

Killing each other
Killing them
Destroying their home with our oil spills, concrete jungles, litter, and morally muddied carbon footprints. 

 

Ornithological observation scatters its eyes 

and its livelihood 

throughout our skies and waterways. 

 

 

 

Watching the water present dynamically

and travel extensively, 

as people also instinctually do… 

 

Each part of this world presents differently, 

fundamentally we are all a part of the one same reality, 

the same physical existence. 

 

We are losing our first home, 

our first mother. 

Louisiana will soon be another Atlantis. 

 

 

 

Like water,
Like birds,
We migrate.

Explore…
Stand in awe of beauty.

 

This is human nature 

To never stop reaching 

 

We can course correct whilst growing together and for one another.


Taking care of us together as our mother has. 

We can bask in her light together.
And fear not one another for what we do not and cannot know. 

This is why we have one other, 

to learn and grow together. 

 

 

© Copyright July 2017 Jessica McGhee, Divine Wanderings. All Rights Reserved. #aspiretoinspirelove

On Coexistence

Mixed Media on Wood

24" x 72"

July 2017

Sold at auction to benefit The Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, NY

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Sifting, Drifting

Mixed Media on Wood

24" x 62"

August 2017

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Under Our Sun

Golden winds twist in, the
Tide’s in.

We Rise in Our lines To dance in Your eyes

Under these trees of Joshua Through the rains of change

Witnessed by Our Pastures Our Herons
Our Winds

This is our One True Home Sacred Home.

Sacred in this physical space, This Physical Life
Which we
Exist in,

Live in, Breathe in, Decease in.

Sunlight through the breezes Milkweed seeds
Float to fly
Through our Eyes

Record us through your lives Mountains, Waters, and Pastures

Our Deserts house as much Hope as your camera’s eye.

Come Dance with me under our Sun...

© Copyright January 2017 Jessica McGhee, Divine Wanderings. All Rights Reserved. #aspiretoinspirelove

Under Our Sun

Mixed Media on Wood

14" x 30"

January 2017

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Navigating Enceladus; Isabella

Mixed Media on Paper

18"x 24"

February 2017

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Anicca

Mixed Media on Wood

29" x 29"

January 2017

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Oceanfront

Mixed Media on Wood

16" x 40"

December 2018

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Sight Set

Ink on Paper

5" x 8"

December 2016

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Walking

Ink on Paper

9" x 12"

December 2012

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Leimert Park Drum Circle
Leimert's Tree
Leimert from right
Lemeirt LL corner
Leimert from base
Leimert from top

Leimert Park

Ink on Paper

14" x 5" x 4"

June 2007

Private Collection

Print not available.

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Coast Series

Mixed Media on Paper

4" x 14"

December 2012

Private Collection

Prints available for purchase

Please contact for pricing details

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Exhibitions

Redhouse Arts Center, Syracuse, NY; Solo Exhibition paired with theatre production: By the way, Meet Vera Stark. February 24, 2023- March 24, 2023

38th Annual  MLK Celebration, Art Gallery, Group Exhibition, JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, January 22, 2023

Fête Noir, Arts Showcase Hosted by The Black Artist Collective, Community Folk Art Center, February 26, 2022

Geodessy, The Barken Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Ithaca, NY: September 2019

Inevitable Exits, The Michael Sickler Gallery, Group Exhibition, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY: May 2-18, 2019

Pop-Up Art Show, The Byrne Building, Solo Exhibition, Syracuse, NY: March 13- 31, 2019

Westcott Community Center, Syracuse, NY; Solo Exhibition: July 2018- February 2019

RedHouse Arts Center, Syracuse, NY; Solo Exhibition: April 6, 2018- May 27, 2018

Shoppingtown, Syracuse, NY; Group Exhibition: May 2018

Apostrophe S', Syracuse, NY; Group Exhibition: December 2017

RedHouse Arts Center, Syracuse, NY; Solo Exhibition: October-November 2014

Petit Library, Syracuse, NY; Solo Exhibition: December 2013- January 2014

Press

Maser, J. (2023). Graduate Student McGhee ’19 Finds Passion and Purpose in Art Therapy. Syracuse University News. Link: https://news.syr.edu/blog/2023/03/03/graduate-student-jessica-mcghee-19-finds-passion-and-purpose-in-creative-arts-therapy/

 

Kilpatrick, G. (2023). Fine Artist and painter Jessica McGhee on Inspiration for the Nation. Inspiration for the Nation; 1/22/23. Zoom recording. Link: https://tunein.com/podcasts/p2069454/?topicId=259148694

 

Harper, D. (2023). Art Exhibition to be Presented at University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. Syracuse University News. Link: https://news.syr.edu/blog/2023/01/09/art-exhibition-to-be-presented-at-universitys-martin-luther-king-jr-celebration/

 

Simon, K. (2019) Jessica McGhee, using art to create a higher good. Blackstone Launchpad, Syracuse University. News. Link: https://launchpad.syr.edu/jessica-mcghee-using-art-to-create-a-higher-good/

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Commissions available per request. 

Please contact me for a consultation.

 Metta.

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Thank you for visiting!

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#Aspire to Inspire Love

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