Jessie Mae Winchester is an Irish artist, born 1982 in West Cork. She is currently based in Kinsale. Jessie Mae received her BA Honours Degree in Fine Art in 2009 at The Crawford College of Art & Design, where she specialised in Sculpture and Life Drawing. After her Degree Show titled, ‘Site 46’, where she received an Award from CIT for ‘Best Exhibition Space’, Jessie Mae became a member of The Pigeon House Studios, Kinsale in 2010 and now is working from her private studio in the Artistic Alliance Gallery, Cork city. She was invited to Noelle Campbell Sharp’s Cill Riallaig artist residency project in Co. Kerry in September 2010 where she explored her concepts and practice. Many collectors are taking great interest and collecting Jessie Mae’s work. She continues with her artwork between her studio and The National Sculpture Factory. Her unique style brings new life to each of her exhibitions.
“It is my continual fascination to portray the figure in various forms and mediums in an attempt to capture moments and materials in time. This constantly fuels the inspiration for my work. I have been gradually working outwards; from the forms found within a body, to the encasing, exterior forms of a figure. I combine fundamental elements such as gold, chalk, oils, conte, graphite, resin, bronze and stone etc. I am fascinated with their material relevance, with regard to their physical existence in time and space, and their relationship to one another. Through each specific existence it is my intention to utline and raise a consciousness of our own physical and spiritual existence. By using these temporary and permanent mediums, I envisage my drawings to be experiments. I outline the presence of material survival, acknowledging and possibly challenging the un-relentless ephemerality of life. Whilst trying to capture the momentary poses of my model, snapshots of her physical form, her energy, vibrancy and existence, I am also referencing the human condition, which dates back to our beginnings; our fascination to preserve ourselves, our memories, our actions and our stories, protecting them from being lost in time. I use techniques such as body printing, body casting and build armoured forms, as each one references a sense of encasement and defence, a barrier to hold in the present, define the past and guard against the future.”Jessie Mae Winchester
Some Sample of Jessies Work
