Meet Jess Currier | Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jess Currier and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jess, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
To follow your passion. I think there’s often a misconception that artists, particularly in more traditional creative fields, are working from a constant stream of inspiration. There’s the stereotype of the obsessed creative, driven purely by passion for the work. But passion and inspiration come and go. They’re only one small piece of what you need for a sustainable creative career. Passion makes for a beautiful spark, but a poor compass. If you’re only depending on feeling inspired or passionate about the work, you’ll never get anything done. As I look back over my early career, it was discipline that carried me. I truly loved the work, but I also decided early on to show up for it even when I didn’t feel that way. I built a habit of showing up every day, and kept that commitment for years. The work I do now still gives me moments of magic, that sense of inspired flow and the reason I fell in love with painting in the first place. But it’s discipline that brings me back to the canvas every time.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a painter, educator, & dreamer living and working in Los Angeles. I make art for brave souls, kindred spirits, and everyone who speaks the language of flowers. I knew I wanted to be an artist from early childhood, never wavering on that dream except for in the third grade when I briefly wanted to be a marine biologist (actually mermaid, but pragmatic eight year old me thought this was a solid compromise).

I’ve always been in love with painting. But like many artists, I was plagued by perfectionism and deeply afraid of failing. So through much of adolescence and young adulthood, I found myself working in other creative professions that felt less risky and also less interesting to me. Thankfully I eventually realized that the only true failure on this path would be never painting at all – so I gave myself permission to be bad at it and got to work.

Many years of practice and study and hundreds of paintings later, I am so deeply grateful to my younger self for taking that leap. I found my voice as an artist through doing that work. Through daily, disciplined commitment to the craft. Through a thousand sketches and quick studies that no one ever saw. In still lifes and landscapes and faces and flowers, my style as a painter began to emerge. The way my brush moves the paint. The colors I put together. The way I see light.

I painted because it made me feel alive. Which is complicated, because living is complicated and often painful. It’s a brave thing, to choose to be alive. I use flowers in my work to represent this relationship with living. The beauty and the pain. The longing and the loss. Flowers hold all of that meaning. We turn to flowers in our moments of greatest joy and deepest grief. We place them on altars. We lay them at graves. They are seasonal and transient. Tiny, fleeting miracles. Beauty that we cannot keep. My paintings are invitations to cling to hope. To remain awake to the entangled paradox of suffering and beauty that comes with being human. To bravely rebel against despair. To be reminded that there are always flowers, for those who choose to see them.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love LA because it really has the best of everything you could hope to do. I’d start at the Norton Simon to see some of my favorite paintings, hike at Griffith for the best views of the city, head downtown for the best tacos at Sonoratown and a trip to the Flower Market for the best deals on new houseplants. And of course get our feet in the sand and soak in the glory of a sunset over the ocean. My favorite is Hermosa Beach.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I always return to the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. It transformed my view of creativity just as I was beginning to paint and freed me from so many things that were holding me back.

Website: www.jesscurrier.com

Instagram: instagram.com/jesscurrierstudio

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jesscurrierstudio

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jesscurrierstudio

Image Credits
Stacia Hiramine