Jessica Puma

On paper I make drawings of buildings. They are neither planned nor designed but rather an amalgamation of architecture I have seen or loved, lived in or photographed. I am not interested in the precision or geometric stability of architecture; rather it is the emotional content of the abstracted form I seek to expose.

My process of drawing drives the forms I make. I begin with line or spilt liquid color. I prefer to come into the drawing from the sides, setting a high horizontal that originates on the extreme left or right. Combining collage with a raw handling of wet and dry media, I work messy and set out to make an honest and vulnerable image that suggests rather than states. The titles are ripped from my personal writing as well as the inner thoughts that scroll through my brain while I work. These are reassurances of a certain kind and they push me along, as each structure I make relates to a “someone,” something, or event that I am processing.

Line is the cornerstone of my work and I want for mine to remain innocent and insouciant, yet attentive and patient. These are buildings, sometimes fantastical and definitely utopian, involved in their own becoming and built with faith and nonsense. I think about the past and the future, the entrances and exits, the places to dream, to work and to rest. I am searching for these places with my own fear and questioning.