Jess (She/Her) is an interdisciplinary artist and designer. For the past two and a half years, her art and research have focused on the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fires—two wildfires that drastically altered the area where she grew up.
She spent two summers volunteering on wildfire recovery projects around Las Vegas, New Mexico, where she helped local residents clear toxic debris from their homes, build flood-control structures, and plant native flora. Listening to people’s experiences of the fire made her realize that her understanding of home had profoundly shifted.
Jess was part of Shared Futures, an artist–scientist collaboration, where she worked with a researcher studying the fire’s impacts on watersheds around Las Vegas. Together, they built an interactive water sculpture that was installed at the Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum of Albuquerque.
Her MFA thesis solo show, “Found in the overflow,” was a site-specific exhibition at the Dwan Light Sanctuary outside Las Vegas. She is featured in Southwest Contemporary’s Volume 11 issue, “The Hyperlocal”. She has exhibited her work nationally and in Wales, UK, and was a selected artist for Art Chicago. In 2020, she was the Artist in Residence at the United World College of the American West.
Jess recently completed her MFA at the University of New Mexico and currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).