HOME | ARTISTS | UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS | RECENT EXHIBITIONS | GALLERY INFO | CONTACT


Jessica Bush

From an early age, Jessica was encouraged to inquire and document life, to explore and then explain. This sort of upbringing created a safe-place for creativity. It wasn’t until college that Jessica began to explore what it means to go beyond creativity as a mind-set and start to think of art-making as a life style. In 2006 she graduated from Taylor University with a BA in studio art and concentrations in painting and drawing.

Upon graduating, she moved to Chicago where she worked as an high school art teacher, graphic designer for a book publishing company, and opened an art and vintage furniture shop. Amidst these other creative venues, she realized a desire to focus on her fine art.

Most recently, Jessica is lives in Wheaton, Illinois with her husband. She has a studio in the basement where she works with oil, wax and collage and explores concepts of process, the way one experience opens into the next, and interaction between objects depending on their placement.

Artist Statement:

All of life unfolds in stages. Each stage builds upon the last and the present stage carries marks of the past. Even when something is simplified through process, the result is even more complex because of the process that has brought it to this new stage. Traces of the process can always be seen in the present form and its history can always be sensed.

My paintings are an exploration of those traces. Each painting has developed in stages or layers. Traces of past layers can be seen though openings indicating the complexity of process. These openings evoke a consciousness of the past, giving depth to the present.

Many of the materials that have been used in these paintings are found materials. These materials also offer small openings into the past as they have their own story. And while they may recall the past, their function is transformed; a found letter may be the first layer of a painting and a used book is now a part of art.


Beneath the Ice, encaustic on panel, 12x16


Beneath the Ice, encaustic on panel, 12x16


In Passing, encaustic on panel, 24x18


Terrarium, encaustic on panel, 18x24


Untitled, encaustic on panel, 24x18


HOME | ARTISTS | UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS | RECENT EXHIBITIONS | GALLERY INFO | CONTACT