Creativity Has Seasons - Artist Interview with Jess Webb
Meet our newest THP instructor Jess Webb- educator, artist, musician, and idea maker. Her art ranges from site specific installations (including a piece for Meow Wolf Denver), restaurant design, art education, portraiture and murals. She has a true love for the environment and prefers working straight from nature by growing herbs and wild harvesting plants to create her ceramics, natural dyes, and paint pigments. We are very lucky to have Jess teach Watercolors - Make Your Own! Online Class and excited to share a little more about this talented Colorado artist.
What is your first memory engaging with or feeling connected to art / making things? When I was young, maybe four, I remember hiding in my room by myself and drawing. I would often work on beading or other crafts while watching TV at night.
What can you share about your creative process? My creative process can be methodical or spastic depending on my mood. I am often working on several things at once, some things, like emotional heavy things have a long gestational period and take time to reveal themselves to me, where other task oriented creative projects tend to be more spastic and I fly by the seat of my pants.
Do you ever experience creative block? I experience a lull in creativity after I have a big art show or release and need time to feel inspired again. I don't call it a creative block though, I just think that creativity has seasons.
Give an example of your most recent inspiration: This morning my husband and our dear friend were playing an instrumental guitar on the deck outside and the bugs around started to flock to the sound. The light was just so that the spider webs and the floaty flying nats were catching the light in the most gossamer way and it felt like a magic moment. I will carry that moment into a music video I am making for Lake Mary, my friend Chaz who was playing.
Not everyone is a teacher. What motivates you to teach classes at Two Hands Paperie? I went to college for art education and quickly learned I wanted to work as an art teacher outside a traditional public school setting. I am a freelance art educator with Think360 Arts and they pair me with many organizations. I have always loved Two Hands Paperie and think you have an amazing selection of quality supplies and sprinkles of fun. I always feel inspired when I visit.
Finish this sentence: "I am most artistically satisfied when... I slow down in the art process and feel the relationship with the material that I am working with.
Jess' Bio
Jess Webb studied spatial media and art education at Metro State University of Denver and has been a Denver based artist for over 15 years. In addition to creating her own works, she’s an art educator for Think360 Arts in Denver. Through them, she teaches at Dinosaur Ridge, Denver Public Libraries, and schools all over the front range. (The organization believes the arts are a fundamental tool to enhance learning and has been providing services to educators, teachers, and the community since 1963.)
In addition to her other work, Jess creates custom installations and artworks in many mediums and often collaborates on site specific and performance art. One recent project was for Meow Wolf Denver, an arts production company that creates immersive, multimedia experiences. To learn more about Jess' art and philosophy, check out her March 23, 2021, interview with ShoutOut Colorado Meet Jess Webb | Artist – SHOUTOUT COLORADO.
Learn more about Jess by visiting her website and follow her on Instagram.