Check out Jeri Moore’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeri Moore.

Jeri, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I would rather draw you a picture, laughing. Interpreting my feelings about my experiences in life has always been easier through drawing and painting. I raised two children pretty much by myself. I had to work part-time for a couple of years after my divorce but then the art took off. I lacked confidence in the beginning, but I felt even then that my art spoke for itself, it didn’t need much hype.

Houston was good to me. I did the Westheimer Art Festival a couple of times, giving me the confidence to enter juried shows, one being at the Glassell School of Art. The owners of Cafe Annie bought a piece then asked me to do a mural for their restaurant. It was 17 feet by 37” high. Their investors then had me do a large painting for a lobby of one of their buildings off 610. I then donated a mural to a children’s organization on Chimney Rock. This was a place where kids that were removed from their family situation stayed, so the mural needed to be emotionally calm. In the meantime, the venerable Hooks-Epstein Gallery put me in their introduction show and a gallery in Taos, New Mexico began representing me and did so for over 20 years.

I eventually moved to Santa Fe with the kids. I was juried in shows in Santa Fe and I did a mural in a safe house called Esperanza (Hope). Santa Fe was a pretty trendy place back then and my clients found this appealing, and many traveled from Texas to NM and continued to collect my work, as they do even now. I moved back to Texas after five years where more commissions of large paintings came to me in Austin and Houston. I donated a mural to Sustainable Foods in Austin. The 6’x24’ painting was then auctioned and reproduced on an 11’x 40’ banner that hung on the Miller Blue Print building on 6th Street in Austin for many years. The Hyatt at Lost Pines near Bastrop, had me paint a 6’x12’ piece for their spa. It was to honor Django, a musician from the 40s. The donation of a piece and being the featured artist for the Food and Wine Festival brought more commission work. Unlike some artists, I enjoy doing commission work, and I also try to donate work at least once a year. This year, I’m donating my time to the homeless in Community First art house.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
First of all, it is a gift, I try not to lose sight of that.
The images are usually conceived quickly, capturing my feelings at that moment, and of course, many hours are spent getting pieces to a final state. I use to call this my social life. The kids would go to bed, music on and wine in hand, I would check in with me and start the evening at the easel. Occasionally, some images were pretty dark and I would destroy them in the morning. I am a romantic, so most of my work centers around people connecting in a loving and understanding way. But all of them had the emotional signature of what was going on in my internal landscape. And, yes, I worried about if my work would sell. But they ultimately were healing for me and in turn for others. There would be that one piece that spoke to a client and they would take it home… the best feeling ever… knowing the work resonated.

On the technical side, I work with acrylic for large or fast painting, oil, colored inks and recently, I have added paper in the mix. I have clay, stone and paper mache sculptures but do not put them in galleries.

When I first started doing art as an adult, I was too intimidated by the white surface of the paper, so I worked on grocery bags. I later tried to find an acid free paper of the same color and nature. Not easy. One learns through trial and error how to do things for presentation.

Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
There are plenty of artists that reflect our world situations. I have more concern about our spiritual support through art. The image that brings us closer to our interior world and provides strength in ourselves and mankind.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
The best way to view the work is on my website… jerimoorefineart.com. I work in two studios, one in Austin and one in Colorado. I have been in several galleries throughout my career, at present I am in Art Connection gallery in La Grange Texas. My work will be in Blanco Texas Mar.1 through May 1, 2019.

I am always open to studio appointments.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jerimoorefineart.com
• Phone: 512-453-5232
• Email: jerismoore@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://jeris6789
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/.jerimoorefineart/.

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