Jessica Justice

ARTIST STATEMENT

A year-long fashion experiment helped me to define the roots of my artistic philosophy and aesthetic. In 2019 I challenged myself to wear the same black dress every day for the whole year. This, in turn, became one of my most dynamic canvasses and inspiration for my art pieces.

I created a strict set of rules for wearing this dress. First of all, I could have no duplicates of the dress; it must be the same one worn everyday. Also, buying new “things” to accessorize it was forbidden. I could only wear what I currently owned in order to accessorize. Since what I had in my closet to wear was mostly black, such as a cardigan, throughout the year I gained a deeper appreciation for color. It fueled me to use colors and patterns I’d never thought to use before in my art.

Doing the dress experiment also added a new sense of attention to extreme detail. Because of its simplicity, it led me to examine fabrics more closely; to look at their patterns, texture and stitching. I wanted to find a way to combine my determination in wearing the little black dress and translate it through my art. This led me to focus on fabrics, embroidery, and painting. Combining acrylic paint on different textiles and materials that were matte, shiny, transparent, and glittery with embroidered simple straight or fill stitches, I chose materials and colors that worked harmoniously together.

My process begins at the physical level, texture. I soon found inspiration in the texture and patterns of my bathroom tiles, the wrinkles on my cardigan, or even the macaroni and cheese in my pantry. I’d photograph the area and magnify parts until sometimes they were unrecognizable, and from there I began my design. For my pieces, I would focus on opposing directions and seemingly chaotic shapes. They give the impression of disharmony, however, upon closer inspection, you can see that together they create a sort of harmonic whole. This led me to an idea I like to call, “Calculated Harmony”. Much like the rules for wearing the dress, this Calculated Harmony required me to have a strict set of requirements for my art.

My 2019 experiment was more than a personal challenge - it gave me a new appreciation and understanding of my art. Through its simplicity, I gained a deeper appreciation for color. Through restrictions, I gained clarity for my own artistic focus. By using the Calculated Harmony technique I could create a new sense of movement and balance that would flow through each of my pieces’ colors and patterns, stitch by stitch.