Jessica Blinkhorn
Seeking her own artistic truth
By Vanessa H. Fardin
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| Photo by Melissa Ray |
Jessica Blinkhorn’s artistic quest centers on her intrinsic need for truth. Blinkhorn (art, 2005) believes that documenting her life through performance pieces, visual representations and writing allows her audience to find themselves in her art.
Blinkhorn says KSU was essential in her development as an artist. “When I began my studies at KSU, I had been the top draftsman at South Cobb High School,” Blinkhorn says. “But I discovered when I got to college that I did not know as much as I thought I did. My professors encouraged me to be the best technical artist that I could be.”
Blinkhorn’s art has been displayed in several group exhibits, and she has had a performance exhibition at Artistry in Atlanta. She is currently a graduate student at Georgia State University and is working on a series of work about exclusion entitled “Search and Truth.” Blinkhorn is also writing an autobiography called “Writings of a Bound Artist” that will juxtapose her art as a visual representation of her writings.
During an open studio show at The Mattress Factory Art Museum this past spring, National Public Radio interviewed Blinkhorn about her work. Affected with spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative disease which affects her body’s cells, she uses her art to document the lives of those living with disabilities. “I include all aspects of my life in my art,” she says, “from bathing and dressing to relations.”
Although she is proud of the recognition she has received, a desire for success does not influence her artistic vision. Her artwork, which usually focuses on large and miniature documentations of her body’s decline, includes drawings that Blinkhorn uses purposely as metaphorical performances and ambient sound pieces. “My work is an emotional translation of my life,” she says. “I am a truthful artist. I take features of my life and I draw them, write stories about them and perform them. My life inspires my art. I don’t try to find success in art, but the truth about me and about the world.”
Blinkhorn hopes to one day teach painting and drawing at a university on the West Coast and to run an art gallery. “After being told numerous times that my life is interesting,” she says, “I realized that I could use my art to speak to others. KSU has been a big influence on my continued growth as an artist, and I cherish the time that I spent there.”