Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Rice.
Hi Jessica, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve always made art. As far back as I can remember I was drawing. I started painting in high school and painted my first mural on my bedroom walls. I painted my first professional mural at a day care facility when I worked there as a camp counselor in my early twenties. From there I got more clients. Eventually I started doing canvas work while I was in college studying education and art. Did a few shows, most memorably at Gallery M Squared in the heights back when a group called NeopopStreetPunk (co-founded by Nicky Davis and Kevin Sechelski) was putting together low-brow art shows there, and I started really selling my work. I painted my first large public mural at Kingspoint Grafitti Park in 2012, and after that I was lucky enough to partner with some amazing Houston art entities like Houston Arts Alliance, Fresh Arts, and Aerosol Warfare/Artists in Pursuit. Fast forward to now, I’ve been able to partner with Meow Wolf on their Houston exhibit, Radio Tave, and created a whole muraled room-ceiling, furniture and all. In between I’ve had the pleasure of participating in many community centered public art initiatives around Houston including a skatepark, a piece for the Houston Zoo, a piece on the Esplanade representing the East End, and most recently a charter school in the Gulfton/Sharpstown area during which I got to lead the students in adding their own original artwork to the piece. Another project I’m really proud of is a collaborative mural painted underground at Bush Intercontinental Airport. The painting was filmed over three days by an amazing production company out of Canada and the time lapsed footage now shows in a loop of video representing different aspects of Houston on a huge circular screen called the Oculus. It hangs over the international arrivals terminal and people arriving in Houston can see us painting this massive mural in three minutes. It was a very challenging project and super rewarding to see it now!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, the road hasn’t been particularly smooth haha! While I’ll be forever grateful for all the opportunities that came my way and all the amazing people I got to work with and who helped me out, there has always been this tension I’ve had to contend with between who I am as an artist and who I am as a mother. At the time things were really starting to take off with painting and murals I was also raising three children. I can remember a lot of late nights finishing design work to meet a deadline, exhausted from just having fed everyone, cleaned up, put the baby to bed, only to wake up a few hours later with the baby then get everyone to school before going out to work on a large piece (a lot of times in the heat because Texas)- going up and down ladders, operating lifts and paint sprayers. My youngest daughter is autistic, something we learned at the time. We were figuring out how to navigate that as I was trying to take on bigger contracts. It was very demanding. Sometimes I would have to put art away for months or a year depending on her needs, or the needs of everything else and my mental environment. Financially, that created a different challenge. And mentally it took its own toll. I’m so in awe of working mothers who can manage that balance. I admit..I’ve never been able to figure it out. Working and mothering is so tough, but moms who also keep up their art practice are something else. Just to have any emotion, imagination, or inspiration left to create after everything we give to our children is an incredible thing. Cheers to all the art moms out there doing it. I know firsthand what it takes and it’s a lot.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I paint. The work I’m most proud of are my murals. It’s incredibly hard work to paint a mural and a lot of times a piece I paint is a part of a community. I get to involve community members in its creation, and I’ve found that most people are really proud of and feel ownership of public art in their neighborhoods. It’s like a gift I get to share with people and it’s very rewarding.
What’s next?
Currently I have started to step back from mural work a little and have found myself getting back to basics with my art practice. I’ve been working more on drawings, which is the very first medium I learned to use to express myself. I’ve also been painting smaller, canvas works. Mural work, while super rewarding, sort of led me to spend more time creating for others-designing what others asked of me. What I’d like to do in the future is get back to work that is more my voice again.
Contact Info:
- Website: Jessicariceartist@gmail.com
- Instagram: @jessicariceart
- Facebook: @ Jessica Rice Art
