Jess Phoenix’s illustrations can be boiled down to two ingredients: flowers and color. As such, her Instagram page provides a sort of haven in times of quarantine. Sold as embellished art prints (with splashes of gold and neon paint), her illustrations are also featured on stationery, book covers, and embroidery, adding up to a vibrant universe where it is always springtime.
“True creativity is like an itch that you LOVE to scratch using your curiosity,” observed Phoenix in an interview with Papirmass. “You can just keep scratching it; it never gets old!” According to Phoenix, she feels that exact itch when it comes to color. “I’m curious about color, which makes me want to explore it and ‘get creative’ with it,” she says.
Color, more than flowers or nature in general, was what pushed Phoenix’s creative practice. “My work emerged from a desire to produce art as bright and as vibrant as I wanted,” she explains. “I love my day job, but sometimes I’m told to change my colors so they ‘don’t vibrate so much.’ I WANT my art to vibrate!”
A creative spirit, she notes that creativity is contagious and is well within our reach. “Everyone has something they’re curious about, so I think everyone has that innate potential to explore that curiosity and in turn, be creative,” says Phoenix. Words to live by!
