About the Artist

Primarily working in acrylics on wood panel, I seek to reconstruct moments of beauty I find set before me by life's circumstances.    

When I am painting a subject it is as if I am figuring it out - feeling its structure with the brush and zeroing in on the colors and their hues giving it substance and depth.   Worrying that visual moments will slip away or be clouded over and forgotten, I try to capture the likenesses as quickly as possible which can lead to agitated strokes and mashed about shapes of dark and light.  The composition, the way your eye travels through the piece, is worked out mostly ahead of time with reference photos and sketches, but can also happen during the "building" of the work, line upon line, layer upon layer.

Inspiration could be purely visual like the changing colors on a building because of how the sun moves while I am passing by.  It could be the imaginings I have when listening to selections of music, creating soundtracks for my commutes to school or the store.  Or, in pushing it further, it could become a heavier "heart" reason like seeking to overturn a subject's lost sense of worth by making it noticed and seen.  Long walks, quiet school pick up line moments, and a suddenly calm house after bedtime chaos fuels my "visioneering".   

Stepping away from my small home studio, I am a wife and mother to three very individually awesome and active young kids.  Becoming a mother has certainly enhanced my artistic visions, practices and endeavors.   I am fortunate to be able to bring my family along on my journey into becoming a full time working artist.   

If you're curious to find out more about the inner workings of a studio, or the chaotic mind of an artist...

Click the "newsletter" tab above and add your name to my list.   

Note:

This beautiful video below is not only a rare sighting of me in front of the camera, but a great demonstration of how my love and interest in all things post industrial and their possibilities began.   I am forever grateful to the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts for awarding me an Emerging Artist Fellowship award in 2020.   ...Definitely one of the most notable and awesome adventures I've had to date. 

Jaci Rice, 2020 TFA Emerging Artist from Braiden Maddox on Vimeo.