Jessica Fields was born in Lafayette, Louisiana and lived there for 8 whole days before becoming a Texan. She graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design because she wanted to see snow and then scurried back to Texas. Art school is amazing. That much snow is insane. She received her Masters in Art Education from the University of Houston and then taught Art and Art History for 6 years in West Houston. Now living in Greenville, South Carolina, Jessica paints landscapes and still lives that almost always have the exact shade of yellow that was in her mother’s house. Because home chases you. Artist Statement: Jessica Fields paints landscapes. Even when she’s not really painting a landscape, it’s probably kind of a landscape. There’s this great bit in Travels with Charlie where Steinbeck talks about Texans, and how any Texan who makes any money immediately buys a ranch. They are bound to the land. Jessica Fields is from Texas. She will never have the money to buy a ranch but she will paint them. And she will paint the rivers and hills and mountains of her new Carolina home too. And the lemons that come from the land and the people who live on it. If you squint your eyes… there is a beautiful sameness. Her works trade in color and texture. Thick, buttery paint in saturated hues adorn each canvas, attempting to convey the weightyness of both the earth and the air. She forgot how to paint with a brush some time ago and now wields a number of knives and trowels. The wax infused paint creates a chunky consistency, like jam. All to add a sense of the physical to the abstract. To put action and effort to thoughts and memories.