Jess Self
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    • 2021
    • Residency Experimentation >
      • Bloundous, Iceland >
        • Invisible
      • Austmarka, Norway
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@art.felt.jess

About Jess

Jess Self is a contemporary artist based in Atlanta, GA who works with wax, wool, and wood to create mixed media figurative sculptures. She received her BFA from Warren Wilson College and MFA from Georgia State University. She was a 2014-15 Fellow at the Icelandic Textile Museum and is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant in 2021 and a Hudgens Prize Nominee in 2022. She owns and operates her craft fair business, Heart Felt Designs on the side and has taught at universities and workshops around the world.

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Artist Statement

I am an archetype. Or, rather, I have embodied a variety of archetypes (the seductress, the lover, the mother, and the martyr) throughout my life. In my practice, I create figurative sculptures made from life casts, embedded with or covered in wax, wool, wood, or mixed textiles, to ask: why do we cling to archetypes to understand ourselves and each other? By tapping into the power of archetypes, my identity becomes secondary to universally relatable ideas, helping viewers experience empathy and encouraging them to reflect on their own experiences and psycho-spiritual growth. My figures serve as anchor points to my own narrative and, through the familiar visual language of the archetype, give viewers the opportunity to find their own story within our shared mold. Following Jungian archetypes embedded in both the personal and collective unconsciousness we experience and feel similar things, creating a connection or shared narrative experience. By using my own body as an archetype I strive to facilitate an embodied and emotional connection with viewers through narrative shorthands, while also prodding at their validity.
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