Welcome to the blog you never knew you needed!
Hello hello hello! Welcome to my blog! I decided to create this space out of an exasperated response to my consistent shadow banning and censorship on Instagram. I used my account to share my work, lots of thoughts, research and find avenues for change, but it seems this no longer fits the mold for the social empire's idea of acceptable, SO I'm branching out and taking control. BOOM
To be honest, I've wanted to do this for a while, and if you've been following me on Instagram, you know I LOVE a good rant, chat and word vomit session so by creating a blog, I now have more space, freedom and control over that content. I have a lot to say, and I can do that a lot through my work, but also a lot of it needs to be said out loud (or written online) because it's fucking important. If this is your first time finding my work, hello thanks so much for being here! I'll do a little intro so you know who's fiercely beating her keyboard every month. My name is Jess, I was born in the UK, moved to Australia when I was three years old (so yes I identify as Aussie, I'm not very connected to my British self) and moved back to the UK 4 years ago where I now live in London. The reason I moved was I had felt disassociated with myself in Australia for a while due to mental health issues, so I felt I needed a huge change. I didn't want to overcomplicate moving overseas so since I have dual citizenship, I decided to come back to the UK but live in London where I was pretty unfamiliar and new I was going to start fresh.
I'm a self taught visual artist specialising in figurative oil paintings of the female nude. I use a pretty unique colour palette to give my figures a spiritual and vibrant aesthetic which fuels a very emotional and powerful reaction. My work is grounded in feminism, body neutrality and normativity, mental health issues, dismantling the patriarchy, encouraging self care and love and allowing space for conversation (just to name a few). I never thought I'd be that political gal shouting about important issues, but here I am, and I fucking love it.
I went to uni for a very short time starting a double degree of Business and Arts majoring in English Literature and Philosophy, but I quit after a year. As you can imagine, I didn't enjoy the boring business side, the massive workload or the fact that this was going to be the next 5-6 years of my life. I really enjoyed the English side of things, and I still think about finishing it as I love writing and researching, but I'm hoping this blog will fulfil that need for me, especially since I can choose what I want to speak about. WOMEN!
There's a short little intro, but you'll be getting loads more as I release more articles.
Before I go further, I do need to say; I'm not a professional therapist, I do not work in the sector of violence against women/girls, I have not studied at university about a lot of the issues I'm going to speak about. Although I do a lot of research and am always willing to learn, I want you to know, I may make mistakes, and you might not agree with some things. But that's okay. This is a safe space, and one for conversation. I will always do sufficient researching and by drawing from personal experiences, I hope I can be as genuine and informative as I can.
What to expect in these articles/posts/thought trains:
Analysis of my paintings, understanding the meaning behind them and why I created them.
Feminist Issues - this covers a lot, so I'll leave it vague for now.
Body normativity and neutrality
Throwing diet culture in the bin
Dismantling the patriarchy
Mental health issues - I will only ever speak from experience here.
Inspirational words- not the cheesy kind, just the kind I feel on a fucking great day that I think would help you too!
AND LOADS MORE! I will keep it fairly relevant to my work which means very centered around women and our experiences, because that's what I can relate to most. For now my darlings, that's it. Just a little introduction piece to welcome you to this new space where you will always be safe, inspired, understood and allowed to speak up! I'm going to be releasing articles once a month for now, but depending on how excited I get, this may increase (most likely). Thank you for joining me, I love you! Sending spicy love and power to wherever you are, Jess xxxxxx
