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Jessica McGhee
Fine Artist
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Bio
Jessica McGhee (she/her/they) is a transplant New Yorker originally from Los Angeles, California. Jessica is a mother, a sister, a daughter, and an aunt.
Jessica began her journey into Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design before moving to Syracuse, NY and transferring to Syracuse University. Jessica completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts and her Master of Science in Creative Arts Therapy in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University.
As a Fine Artist, Jessica’s art explores notions of beauty and the human condition, nature, and conceptions of the fullest self via the meditative lens; her work explores trauma, its impacts on the human condition and its myriad expressions through our existence. As an Art Therapist, Jessica utilizes existential therapy and psychoeducation as her primary vehicle in treating people with complex and chronic trauma exposure.
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Branches: An Overview
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My identity as an artist has always been very contrasted in recognizing the suffering and the simultaneous innate beauty of the people we all walk with throughout our lives. In bearing witness to the trespasses and complex intricacies of human nature, in relation to nature and our natural first home, and the beauty that surrounds our bodies and ephemeral existence-- we can take a step back and witness ourselves in our natural state.
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This video symbolizes the innate beauty of our existence and what it is we do to one another and our home. Through art therapy, we use to use symbols and metaphors to understand situations from a different point of view, through our nonverbal experiences and understandings, to reach cathexis.
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Fine Artist:
Artist Statement
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Jessica McGhee is a conceptual, surrealist landscape painter. She most often creates her Fine Art using mixed medias on found plywood that would have otherwise ended up rotting on the side of the road and filling the soil with man-made resins. She finds that creating immense beauty and purpose out of potentially harmful waste contributes to the appreciation and sustainability of our earth and existence. ​
Jessica is a firm believer that art and nature are essential factors for open exploration, inner growth, resilience, and well-being. Much of how people learn is through cause and effect, making mistakes, forming preferences, and realizing the things they never could have ideated were it not for those mistake, thus creating a new journey of exploration, leading to self-actualization. Consider how many times people faceplant as toddlers, or the dedication required when learning how to drive.
Consistent exposure to art and nature create an open canvas for expounding self-expression. Art and nature intermingle with the ephemeral, the tangible and intangible, contrasting positives and negatives of life, and our notions of connection to one another within the world that surrounds our physical existences.
Observations of nature and a steady art practice allow us to explore and examine the many experiences presented to us for contemplation. The cause and effect of attending to nature and creative expression create a curiosity for the world around oneself; instilling a continuous desire to explore life’s many terrains and bear witness the many beauties existence has to offer. Exposure to nature and art aids in deciphering one’s own preferences, determining personal values, and navigating the path toward self-actualization. This exposure causes stronger resiliency, the diving board which we bound off of, and launch into life from. It’s all relative.
Jessica is also currently launching a nonprofit, SOAR, which plans to provide those suffering with PTSD and C-PTSD with sliding scale access to alternative therapies such as yoga, mindfulness meditation and art therapies in a retreat-style setting. Because we all need a retreat sometimes, but so many cannot access such beneficial practices due to financial barriers.
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Art Educator:
Teaching Philosophies
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I thoroughly believe the instruction of art for all people should be steeped in process and exploration. Through process and exploration the ever-changing mind is offered new challenges to confront, over come, maneuver, and learn from. Art offers an immediate cause-and-effect scenario, which can be learned from, whether the results are desired or not. Art offers its students synthesis of the ephemeral and the fundamental.
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The process of working with various art materials opens the mind toward its own questions of how to create. Through this process comes knowledge and understanding of the boundaries within each of the materials at hand. Practiced long term, this can nurture self-understanding through the continual exploration. Which can then be directly translated to life- questions about what might happen if...? Ideations and preferences will be refined, self-confidence can be built. There is no wrong way of making art, there is only exploration.
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Jessica's Personal Influences:
My children and my late father, my sister and best friend Shannon Lima, Chantal Barlow, The Dhammapada, Vipassana, Patanjali, Kundalini, Elise Von Holten, Kahty Chenoweth, Dr. James Haywood Rolling, Jr., Dr. Rochelle Royster, Dr. Emily Nolan, Nedra Glover Tawwab, Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Bell Hooks, Brené Brown, Marc Brackett PhD, Sian Beilock, Peter Levine, James Baldwin, Robert Wright, Adrian Piper, Bill Viola, Saul Williams, Nina Simone, Kahlil Gibran, Malcolm Gladwell, Dali, Picasso, Degas, Figurative Modeling, Joseph M. W. Turner, Psychology, Buddhism under the lens of Psychology, Philosophy and its dissections, the sky, the soil, water, the sun and the winds on my skin, Preserved Wild Habitats, National State and Parks, Anicca, Giving Back, Historic Architecture, NPR, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, the spelling out of Consent movements in the college and university systems Women's March on Washington, Black Lives Matter March on Washington, Dead Can Dance, Luciano Pavorotti, Jill Scott, Estas Tonne, Hanna Jahanforooz, Tropical Bird Club, Trape La Verite, Backseat Freestyle, Matteo Myderwyk, Erykah Badu, Anoushka Shankar, Porgy & Bess, Elisapie, Meditative Mind, my children again, flowers, tall grasses, and all of the beautiful beings I observe during my walks through life. Thank you.
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Looking for an Accessories Shop?
Apparel, accessories, and home goods with Jessica's work can be found on VIDA. Every purchase made through VIDA helps give the gift of education. Please contact Jessica for further details on how to purchase an original work, commission an original work, or purchase a print.
Thank you for visiting!!
Metta...
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Some of works depicted in the gallery belong to Private Collectors and others are available for purchase. Prints are available for purchase. Please email jessica@divinewanderings.com for any purchase related inquiries.
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All art and written statements showcased within www.DivineWanderings.com
is copyright protected, being the Intellectual Property of and created solely by Jessica McGhee.
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