Jessica’s Story

The experience of creating art has occupied my mind since I was five or six years old, the age at which every parent tells their child how wonderful their drawings are.  Growing up believing this was true, I ventured out with the intention of becoming an artist.  As the push/pull of life revolved around me, I alternately advanced toward or receded from the creative process.   

In secondary school in Switzerland and Mexico and in college in Florence, Italy and the United States, I had time for myself and could forge ahead and experiment with different art forms.  Finding painting to be the most satisfactory, I had to become a painter after graduating from college.  Later, with responsibilities at home initially interrupting that goal, I put art away to be a mother to my children and companion and cheerleader to my spouse.  My artwork was on the back burner then, ready to be picked up when priorities changed.  It took a very long time.

I began painting again in the late 1970’s while living on Bainbridge Island in Washington State.  Having some success with commissions to paint detailed portraits of people’s historic houses spurred my interest in going back to school for more training.  Taking art classes initially at the Cornish Institute of Art and Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle and later at the University of Washington reaffirmed my earlier excitement with this form of expression.  As the “oldest” student in every class, I was intensely aware of the passage of time that occurred since I had been away from art.  Working next to young students also inspired me to stretch further, experiment more, and free my mind to countless possibilities.

At the age of 50 I decided to dramatically change my life to concentrate on art full time.  We sold our home on the island and moved into two adjacent art studios in Seattle’s eclectic Belltown area.  The building was designed and built by artists specifically as a place where artists could live and work together.  One of my studios was dedicated completely to painting with a 12-foot high by 20-foot long “easel” for creating my larger pieces. 

On looking back at the progression of my art, I see it unfolding in various stages.  As the artist, these stages appear very distinct and separate, but I’m told by many observers that there is a thread of continuity visible between the early work and my present work.  In the 1980’s, I initially started creating large, realistic, black and white drawings using charcoal, conte crayon and pastel.  Then I added color and experimented with torn paper, charcoal and acrylic washes focusing primarily on stylized portraits done on thick paper and boards.  As I moved exclusively to larger sheets of thick, handmade paper, I began using pastels as my primary painting medium to make ever larger and more abstracted and dynamic figures.  When my figures approached six feet tall, they began moving off the paper onto second and third adjacent sheets.  Some of my larger composite pieces were over 6 feet by 9 feet in size.  Eventually, these drawing became more and more abstract, turning into circular organic forms rather than human figures.

Complete abstraction, organic forms, and circular motion, as a theme, has since carried me through an endless series of paintings expressed with acrylic paint on large canvases.  What I call the Menantol Series (based on the Celtic Mên-an-Tol symbol for Woman) consisted of large dark circular forms surrounded by flat areas of color and line. This series was followed by the Spanish Rain Series where the menantol circles were cut open.  These open circles occupied strategic spaces across the surface of my canvases with the intervening spaces being filled by horizontal bands of color and complimentary washes of dripping paint.  While observing the natural flow of paint dripping around and off the canvas, I was led to what I called the Seattle Rain Series.  In these paintings, I incorporated the mood of my home town at the time with its overcast skies and constant drizzle. 

My more current work grew from a family trip to Aruba.  My previous work had always focused on darker, organic colors with imbedded dark shapes, each finding their own place on the canvas as the painting progressed.  However, watching my grandson play on the beach with the blue sky, white sand, indigo water and listening to his happy laughter while enjoying his rainbow-colored beach toys, led me to the series I call “Papiamento” after the native language of the island.  I wanted to instill some of that happiness and laughter, color, and whimsy into my next series of paintings.  Brighter colors and freer strokes emerged as I shifted from serious to playful. 

My paintings change as my perception of what I see and feel around me changes.  I often work intensely through a new period, which usually takes about ten to twenty paintings to express.  Inspiration for a new period can come from a word, a dance, a look, a grandchild’s scribble, the light of the day, a challenge to myself, or even a small piece of my previous painting.  It comes from everything around me from day to day as I observe and experience my surroundings. 

I still enjoy working on large canvases using intuitive strokes of acrylic paint with a large brush and most recently with the addition of charcoal and pastel lines.  I paint simply to experience the rewards and often the frustration involved with creativity.  It’s an ongoing search for expression – often meditative, sometimes exciting, and always a challenge.  It’s the way I talk about my life as the push/pull of every day events revolve around me. 

Ms. Hachmeister works out of her own studio in Newbury, Massachusetts and currently only shows her work locally.