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Work Samples

'22, Artemis:Slayer of Methane Monsters, Protector of Life

Double sided scroll, hung from long wood bow
2022, Two, 84x48" ink, watercolors on Japanese paper scroll glued together to make one free hanging scroll, entitled, "Artemis:Slayer of Methane Monsters, Protector of Life". The scroll is hung from a wood archery bow. The archetype goddess, Artemis, is portrayed as a archer protecting her cubs on side A and on side B, as a girl aiming her bow toward the worse US methane polluters, which are identified within a glowing circular globe. Young Artemis stands upon a field of melting permafrost and polluting refineries are spewing its warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Movie'22, Artemis"Artemis: Slayer of Methane Monsters, Protector of Life" two sided scroll moving

2022, movie of "Artemis: Slayer of Methane Monsters, Protector of Life" 2022, 84 x 48 ink, watercolor, painting on Japanese paper scroll, sides A & B, which slowly rotates from a long wood bow. As the scroll rotates viewers see a changing vision of Artemis as both huntress and protector. Light goes through the translucent mulberry Japanese papers allowing viewers to see a diffused view of the other side adding to the complexity of the image.

"Green Moon... and Green Night Of Great Mother Bay each55x27 '21

Mother of the Bay, silted, polluted, solitary sailor under toxic sky
2021, “Green Moon of Great Mother Bay” & “Green Night of Great Mother Bay” are two paintings that recognize the mother nature of the Chesapeake Bay. It is a nursery of so much life, but has been for centuries, degraded and exploited. Dr. Michael Salcman poem write, "Not too many think of her now, in the old Indian way—say Susquehanna slowly and what you hear is Mother of the Bay; she comes with poison today, gathered from coalfields, blooming algae, in silt and debris, trapping oyster and crab, in nitrate and shale, drowning life in life."

'20-'15, Six Sliver oil paintings, appx 81s12" each

Six 81x12" oils on canvas or linen, sliver format, a polar bear, sweeping young woman, boy soldiers and sunflowers, granny waving, child diving, child rooted.
Human perception is but a slim slice of an unknown whole. I envision these six 81 x 12 inch oils on canvas or linen as slivers of form and space, a momentary freeze. They are a sampling from my twelve-sliver paintings series, my responses to phrases from poems penned by various poets. The phrases that resonate with the responsive sliver painting are like ancient ice core drillings unearthing deep secrets. That slice of vision seems complete and yet the tight format suggests a different view.

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About Jessica

Baltimore City

Jessica Damen's picture
In 2004, renowned artist, Grace Hartigan dubbed me the “Lewis Carroll of Baltimore”.  Today, I continue to fall through rabbit hole worlds now found in verse, modern and ancient myths, and the stuff of daily life.   I was honored that Hartigan wrote that my paintings “like William James (have) a gift for psychology in her depiction of children. Damen’s use of paint is both sensual and tough.”[1]   This gift, Hartigan spoke of, came from Fear.  I recall a time of magical... more
View Jessica's Resume

Mother We Will Not Forsake You '14 - '22

Mother We Will Not Forsake You- 2014 - 2022
Intellectually we all know Earth is our only home. And yet, we go about our daily lives as if we are not on the precipice of an environmental tipping point. I started doing artwork about the global environmental crisis occasionally, usually after a horrible oil spill, or a very hot summer.  This series of oil, ink brush paintings and rotating double -sided scrolls is entitled “Mother We Will Not Forsake You”. It is not a Mother/Father deity that has forsaken us. It is us forsaking our magnificient mother earth. This series has helped me confront the awful truths of our threatened world without becoming overwhelmed. Sometimes I focus on the “some small part of it,”(1) such as, a small part of the  the Chesapeake Bay and the fields around me that are developed and stripped of their diversity. Other times, I imaginatively travel further afield and envision the mythological Greek goddess, Artemis, who aims her long wood bow at methane polluters and an oil corporate company that has known for half a century to devistating effect of carbor pollution but promoted a campaign of misinformation about global warming.
Artemis is a feminine archetype. She is idealized both as a protector of pregnant women and children, and a huntress destroying those who attempt to defile her or, harm those she loves. Her bow is for righteous retribution. The two-sided scroll, “Slayer of Methane Monsters – Protector of Life” contemporizes this myth. She fights to protect her Polar Bear cubs (side A), now threatened by melting Arctic ice and aims her bow at the worse US methane polluters identified within a glowing circular globe (side B). “Sleepwalking Into Catastrophe” Artemis points her bow outward. You may be standing in its path. A fireboat makes a futile attempt to contain a burning oil tanker, silhouettes of falling sleepwalkers from the melting Antarctic ice sheet and a spewing oil processing plant, all contribute to a scene that is ironically, frighteningly beautiful. 
 
Closer to home, I focus on The Chesapeake Bay and suburban development. I have been influenced by two poems “Mother of the Bay” by Dr. Michael Salcman(2) and “Death of a Field”  by Paula Meehan.(3) 

The Chesapeake Bay is the Mother of all bays. Once her waters held huge oyster beds that continuously cleansed it. Now the Mother of all bays is riddled with dead zones. As poet, Salcman penned…
    Not too many think of her now
   in the old Indian way—say Susquehanna slowly
   and what you hear is Mother of the Bay; 
   she comes with poison today 
  gathered from coalfields, blooming algae
  in silt and debris, trapping oyster and crab
   in nitrate and shale, drowning life in life.(4) 
 
Despite decades of supposed concerted efforts to stop agricultural and housing development runoff, the latest Chesapeake Bay 2021 environmental report card has minimally change since 1986. (5) Of course the dangers to the bay are not only from pollution. Climate change is altering water temperature and salinity thus stressing native marine species.
 
Relentlessly the development around the Chesapeake continues. Fields are lost and runoff speeds pollutants to the Bay’s tributaries. The Field itself nourishes myriad life forms casually wiped out when it becomes subdivided lots. Meehan’s poem “Death of a Field”(6) enumerates how the meadow’s life is diminished and replaced with a…
“…Nest of sorrow and chemical, cargo of joy
 
The end of dandelion is the start of Flash
The end of dock is the start of Pledge
The end of teasel is the start of Ariel
The end of primrose is the start of Brillo
The end of thistle is the start of Bounce
The end of sloe is the start of Oxyaction
The end of herb Robert is the start of Brasso
The end of eyebright is the start of Persil
 
Who amongst us is able to number the end of grasses
To number the losses of each seeding head?”(7)
 
Now is the time we have long denied: the unbearably hot summers, monster hurricanes and blizzards, polluted and rising oceans, glacial and permafrost melts, state size forest fires, blanched coral reefs, and all too many species’ die-offs. Let’s not lose hope. By quickly installing green technology we can flourish and preserve our Earth, our Garden of Eden. Only then, we can say Mother Earth We Have Not Forsaken You.
 
1. quote Wendell Berry
2. Michael Salcman M.DNecessary Speech: New & Selected Poems, Spuyten Duyvil, New York, 2022
3.  Paula Meehan. Painting Rain, Wake Forest University Press, Winston-Salem, NC, 2009
4. Salcman, Ibid, p190
 5. https://ecoreportcard.org/report-cards/chesapeake-bay/bay-health/ Moderate ecosystem health (C). The overall Chesapeake Bay scored a 50%, a five percent increase over last year’s score.
6. Meehan, Ibid p13
7. Ibid
 

  • Artemis, Slayer of Methane Monsters, Protector of LIfe, A'22

    Double sided scroll, hung from long wood bow, ink brush of Artemis pointing a bow, bear and cubs.
    2022, Side A of "Artemis Slayer of Methane Monster, Protector of Life"emphasizes the protector aspect of the Artemis. The archer is aiming her long bow at a company known for its lies about global climate change and now dubious claims of green environmental intervention. I drew inspiration from Paula Meehan’s verse, “ I read that every polar bear alive has mitochondrial DNA from a common mother, an Irish brown bear who once roved out across the last ice age, and I am comforted.” The brown bear, the evolutionary mother of the majestic polar bear, dominates the top of the long scroll.

  • Artemis:Slayer of Methane Monsters, Protector of LIfe B'22

    two sided scroll, ink, watercolor, acrylic. ink brush strokes, washes of images, Artemis, bears, forests. refineries.
    The B-side of the double-sided painting emphasizes the huntress aspect of this female archetype. Young Artemis, focuses her aim toward the golden disc, the Unites States' worse polluters of methane gas. Artemis stands on melting permafrost, Alaska’s ancient frozen ground now soft, its buildings and forests sinking at an alarmingly fast rate and compounding the rapid release of methane. Acrylic, ink, watercolor washes and ink brush strokes were applied.

  • Sleepwalking Into Catastrophe '22, oil on canvas, 27x54"

    melting ice sheet, young Artemis aims her bow, silhouettes of falling sleepwalkers, cool and hot colors
    2022, "Sleepwalking Into Catastrophe"27 x 54", oil on canvas, has Artemis pointing her bow outward. You may be standing in its path. A fire boat makes a futile attempt to contain a burning oil tanker. Look closely and you can see silhouettes of falling sleepwalkers from the melting Antarctic ice sheet as a spewing oil processing plant in red and black contributes to a scene that is ironically, frighteningly beautiful.

  • Artemis Rising '22 81 x 12" O/L

    sliver painting, continuity of DNA, honeycomb, bears, old women covering children mesmerized by phones.
    Inspired by Paula Meehan’s poem, “Solace of Artemis” is entitled "Artemis Rising"2022, 81x12" oil on linen can be viewed as if you were studying a Chinese scroll. It slowing reveals the narrative while your eye moves from one space to another. "I read that every polar bear alive has mitochondrial DNA from a common mother, an Irish brown bear who once roved out across the last ice age, and I am comforted." My mythological paintings are comforting and also thoughtful. This painting is in a private collection.

  • Endangered Species 21.5x60" oil on yupo paper 2020

    horizontal oil painting on yupo paper. Sleeping father and baby, encased in snow. Fiery sky, stranded penguins
    "Endangered Species" is an oil painting on yupo paper, 21.5 x 60 inches. Seen here is a father and baby asleep in their "island of security." They are wrapped in a snow blanket but the sky is glowing red and snow is melting. Penguins are adrift on their decreasing Antarctic ice. Global climate change is endangering species in far off Antarctica and Arctic and will ultimately endanger humans. All species are interconnected.

  • Green Night '21 54 x 27" OC

    oil on canvas, green frightening sky, towering cliffs and a nearly trapped boat
    Inspired by Salcman's poem, "Mother of the Bay" is an ode to the Chesapeake Bay and a prayer for its survival. I envision the Bay under a poisonous green sky, forbidding and ominous, a sailor and his boat squeeze pass towering cliffs with "a million oaks, their stances cocked on cliffs, their branches burning..." You can hear Salcman's reads his powerful poem, a message of warning and hope in Vision Verses Voices portfolio.

  • Bottlenecked 27x54"OC'21

    oil on canvas, fiery sky and grey-purple oysters, luffing sail and flying geese
    “Bottlenecked” oil on canvas, 27x54",'21 shows a fiery sky, a sunset or dawn distorted by pollutants. The sailor and his boat are squeezed in by the Bay’s silted river. The sail is luffing, too close to the wind for propulsion. The propulsion of Global Climate is not unstoppable. A sign of hope is renewed oyster beds, which were once enormous and purified the Bay’s water. Dr. Michael Salcman's poem, "Mother of the Bay" inspired this painting.

  • Lost Songs As Night Approaches '21 54x27 OC

    oil on canvas, red dirt & sky, dying trees, flora and fauna, shadows of children and lovers.
    Inspired by Meehan's "Death of a Field" we see a multitude of life in a field. "The field itself is lost the morning it becomes a site..."The memory of the field is lost with the loss of its herbs". First scent gone and then "...the memory of the field disappears with its flora: Who can know the yearning of yarrow", "the end of hidey holes Where first smokes, first tokes, first gropes, Were had to the scentless mayweed." It is a sad long list of lost birds, plants, abundant and playful place.

  • '14, Seer:Now Is The Time We Have Denied 70x20 ink WC on paper

    Rotating 70x20"scroll, watercolor, ink, hung from antique water pipe, lead fishing weight, global climate change
    Seer- Now IS The Time We Have Denied - Rotating double sided hanging scroll, 70 x 20” antique drainage pipe, fishing line, lead weight. The Seer see the present and immediate future for what it is, the effects of global climate change are here to stay: droughts, raging forest fires, and global dispersion of cryoconite, a powdery debris, blown to Greenland from distant deserts, fires, coal plants and diesel engines. Cryoconite reduces the reflectivity effect of snow thus increasing solar heat, accelerating the melting of ice and raising sea levels.

  • '14, Seer:Side B Seer:Now Is The Time We Have Denied 70x20 ink WC on paper

    Seer sees global warming, forest fires, cryoconite charcoal debris, newspaper clippings describing drought & fires.
    Seer- Now IS The Time We Have Denied - Rotating double sided hanging scroll, 70 x 20” antique drainage pipe, fishing line, lead weight. Side B presents an allover blue and charcoal ink field representing cryoconite, a powdery debris, blown to Greenland from distant deserts, fires, coal plants and diesel engines. Cryoconite reduces the reflectivity effect of snow thus increasing solar heat, accelerating the melting of ice and raising sea levels. The summer 2014 NY Times newspaper clippings are signposts.

Visions Verses Voices-An Immersive Installation:Painting/Verses '19-'21

Visions Verses Voices is an on- going immersive project featuring  paintings inspired by poems that expand upon my love of verse in communication with my visual imagery. This first portfolio presents a sampling of work from 2021, as well as work, that were included in the original 2019 Visions Verses Voices exhibition at the Delaplaine Art Center in Frederick, MD. With Artemis Rising ('20), I began a new direction, interpreting my emotional response to poems that speak of land, water, animals and future generations threatened by global climate change.  The confinment of 2020 lead to a burst of energy early in 2021 resulting in two new series inspired by two new poems. I continued the Visions Verses Voices project with a renewed focus - to find ways to visualize Global Climate Change with paintings that aren't  didactic and terrifying (although, the enormity of Climate Change, is overwhelming.) but also convey a message of hope.   I was fortunate to find certain poems that lyrically spoke of our earth’s beauty and what is lost with our continued polluting and inaction.   "Mother of the Bay” by Dr. Michael Salcman and “Death of the Field” by Paula Meehan have been these recent springboards for my paintings.
As first presented at the Delaplaine Art Center, Frederick, MD, December 2019, twenty-six paintings and twenty-five poems were featured. The paintings were a sampling of artworks from 2003 to 2019. The poems were read by various people: professionals such as, Tom Hall, program host, WYPR, singers, amateur actors and also interested individuals who put in the time to be coached. Their readings were played from speakers in continuous loops, strategically placed throughout the gallery.  All of the readers share an interest, even love, for the verse they read, which, I believe is conveyed through their unique voices.  Poetry read and recited comes alive with an individual’s phrasing and pitch.  Paintings seen and studied can open a world of intellectual and emotional possibilities. The interplay of verses and visions makes for fertile ground enriching and renewing the sister arts of poetry and painting.

The paintings seen at the Delaplaine Art exhibition were penned by Tim Joyce, Janet Lewis, Wilfred Owen, and my long time poet collaborator and friend, Maj Ragain.  A few of Maj Ragain poems were written responsively, that is, after he saw my artwork.

Overall, I consider the paintings and poems of Visions, Verses Voices, to be like companions strolling along a path, each is distinct in their built and personality, sometimes they share sights and insights and at other times, they diverge and re-interpret a thought, a mood, a story and a vision.  I bring my personal life into my emotive, expressionistic, and color filled responses. The artworks never illustrate but do illuminate my idiosyncratic vision. In my opinion, both poetry and painting are at their best when they have mystery enough to encourage the viewer and reader’s imagination.
 
Since this is an on-going project some artworks in this most current portforlio do not yet have a recorded reading. For the most current recordings go to the exhibition's website https://visionsversesvoices.com/

References:
Paula Meehan, Painting Rain, "Death of a Field", Wake Forest University Press. Winston-Salem, NC, 2009pp14-14. Also Meehan's "The Solace of Artemis" was first published in the Notre Dame Review, Fall 2012. Michael Salcman, MD, The Enemy of Good is Better  "Mother of the Bay", Orchises Press, Washington DC., 2009  and revised in Necessary Speech:New & Selected Poems, Spuyten Duyvil, NY, 2022. Janet Lewis (1899-1998) all poems are from Poems Old and New 1918-1978, Maj Ragain, (1948-2018), Clouds Pile Up in the North: New & Selected Poems.Press 53,  Winston-Salem, NC, 2017

Jessica Damen thanks Lindsay Bottos, multimedia artist, for her expertise in collaborating on the production of the soundtracks.

  • Artemis Rising '22 81 x 12" O/L

    sliver painting, continuity of DNA, honeycomb, bears, old women covering children mesmerized by phones.
    Inspired by Paula Meehan’s poem, “Solace of Artemis” is entitled "Artemis Rising"2022, 81x12" oil on linen can be viewed as if you were studying a Chinese scroll. It slowing reveals the narrative while your eye moves from one space to another. "I read that every polar bear alive has mitochondrial DNA from a common mother, an Irish brown bear who once roved out across the last ice age, and I am comforted." My mythological paintings are comforting and also thoughtful. This painting is in a private collection.

  • The Solace of Artemis read by Olivia Hollander

    Olivia Hollander's reading of Meehan's "The Solace of Artemis" captures an undercurrent of intensity. Used with permission by Irish poet and playwright, Paula Meehan's poem “The Solace of Artemis” was first published in the Notre Dame Review in the fall of 2012.

  • Bottle-necked 27x54"OC '21

    Oil on canvas, red orange sky, and thick gray purples oysters, a tight exit for a boat, low flying geese
    The sailor and boat squeeze through a bottle necked passage. This great Bay was once known as the " great river, where strange fish with hard coverings lay" is now almost laid waste by "poison today  gathered from coalfields, blooming algae, in silt and debris, trapping oyster and crab in nitrate and shale, drowning life in life." Once, there were mountains of oysters and the water was a blue as a clear sky, this largest of estuaries. Next hear Dr. Salcman read his poem, "Mother of the Bay."

  • Mother Of The Bay, poem read and written by Dr. Michael Salcman

    "Mother Of The Bay" read by its poet Michael Salcman M.D. The poem is introduced with the piercing noise of low flying geese. His reading fallows the flow of the river, through history, fields, factories until we reach a prayer for its survival and renewel. "Mother of the Bay" was first published in Connecticut River Review, 2006. First collected in Salcman's The Enemy of Good is Better, Orchises Press, Washington D.C., 2011. Reprinted & revised as above in Salcman's Necessary Speech: New & Selected Poems, Spuyten Duyvil, New York, 2022.

  • Green Night '21 54 x 27" OC

    oil on canvas, green frightening sky, towering cliffs and a nearly trapped boat
    Inspired by Salcman's poem, "Mother of the Bay" is an ode to the Chesapeake Bay and a prayer for its survival. I envision the Bay under a poisonous green sky, forbidding and ominous, a sailor and his boat squeeze pass towering cliffs with "a million oaks, their stances cocked on cliffs, their branches burning..." You can hear Salcman's reads his powerful poem, a message of warning and hope in Vision Verses Voices portfolio.

  • Lost Songs As Night Approaches '21 54x27 OC

    oil on canvas, red dirt & sky, dying trees, flora and fauna, shadows of children and lovers.
    Inspired by Meehan's "Death of a Field" we see a multitude of life in a field. "The field itself is lost the morning it becomes a site..."The memory of the field is lost with the loss of its herbs". First scent gone and then "...the memory of the field disappears with its flora: Who can know the yearning of yarrow", "the end of hidey holes Where first smokes, first tokes, first gropes, Were had to the scentless mayweed." It is a sad long list of lost birds, plants, abundant and playful place.

  • Leaping Into Eel's Death Colors OC 81x12" '17

    Sliver oil painting, colorful eels, memory, mortality, journey
    This painting is a response to Maj Ragain's introduction to "Home to the Sargasso Sea." “Every writer finds a new entrance into the Mystery”. An entrance into my painting was found while contemplating Maj's remembrance; a farm's well is getting cleaned and then an eel is felt and a terrified man begs to be lifted. The eel miraculously journeyed from Sargasso Sea to an Illinois farm. The boy witnesses, "The body of the eel still thrashes and churns in the ocean of memory, then dances like a hanged man at the end of a rope. A life hardly contained by its form.

  • About Home to Sargasso Sea :A Poem Not Written by J Damen

    "Home to Sargasso Sea" is the story Maj Ragain wrote to introduction of his last collected works in"Clouds Pile Up in the North". The audio is my response to his story, my realization of his impending death and the impetus for my immersive exhibition, "Visions Verses Voices."

  • Whole With Light, OL 81 x 12" '19

    sliver oil painting, broken forms gradually become softer, one form, textured roses, a brilliant light reflecting spirit
    "Whole With Light" is my response painting to Maj Ragain's commemorative painting "For My Mother Beatrice Summers on Her 90th Birthday". It is a lovely, soft pastel type of verse equating his mother with late blooming roses. The autumn moon is at the base of the sliver canvas, the broken colors gradually become nearly unified at the top of the painting. The roses are textured and make a continuous thread through the whole painting. The light from Beatrice's spirit.gradually lightens.

  • For My Mother Beatrice read by Jason Ryan

    Jason Ryan reads Ragain's "For My Mother Beatrice Summers on Her 90th Birthday". Maj often wrote commemorative poems and this one expresses a son's love for his mother. Ryan's reading does justice to that love.

Visions Verses Voices-An Immersive Installation: Sliver Paintings/Verses '15-'18

Visions Verses Voices II are all sliver shaped oils, which were inspired by the poetry of Janet Lewis.   Lewis' lyrical verses ponder time, birth and mortality in sensory words suggestive of colors, scents, light and shadow. There are children asleep in meadows,  a reader lost in space, found fossils and the scent of dirt and lilacs contained in these verses. I felt it all and expressed those feelings in paint.

Visions Verses Voices is an on- going immersive project featuring  paintings accompanied with poems that expand upon my love of verse in communication with my visual imagery. As first presented at the Delaplaine Art Center, Frederick, MD, December 2019, twenty-six paintings and twenty-five poems were featured. The paintings were a sampling of artworks from 2003 to 2019. The poems were read by various people: professionals such as, Tom Hall, program host, WYPR, singers, amateur actors and also interested individuals who put in the time to be coached. Their readings were played from speakers in continuous loops, strategically placed throughout the gallery.  All of the readers share an interest, even love, for the verse they read, which, I believe is conveyed through their unique voices.  Poetry read and recited comes alive with an individual’s phrasing and pitch.  Paintings seen and studied can open a world of intellectual and emotional possibilities. The interplay of verses and visions makes for fertile ground enriching and renewing the sister arts of poetry and painting.

Each painting is followed by its recited relevant poem and soundscapes.
Additionally, the viewer/listener is able to access each audio from the exhibition's website  https://visionsversesvoices.com/
Documentation:
Janet Lewis (1899-1998) from Poems Old and New 1918-1978, Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, Chicago, IL, 1982

  • Strawberry Wreckage & Lilac Dust '18 81x12" OC

    Sliver oil painting, poetry, young woman sweeping, lilac blossoms, timeliness
    Janet Lewis' "Girl Help" inspired this painting. Lewis describes the sweeping girl's pause, "In the warm, lofted air, Soft lips together pressed, Soft wispy hair, she stops to rest. .... The great white lilac bloom Scented with days to come." This is a suspended moment when all is present and eternal. The strawberries, red and succulent, represent a fallen, wounded heart that will be swept up with the debris.

  • Girl Help read by Olivia Hollander

    Olivia Hollander is a graduate from Baltimore's School of the Arts. Her area of concentration was theatrical arts. Her reading of Lewis' "Girl Help" is paced and measured. The introductory sound of humming honey bees is clearly reminiscent of Lilac's scent. The girl and flowers are fully bloomed.

  • Granny's Garden is Running Away 81x12"OC'17

    sliver oil painting, gray woman waving away,young child clings,landscape metaphor, time lost
    Thia long thin format is a sliver of form, space or time. Like the arctic ice tube samples, my slivers tell a deep, ancient story. I am also influenced by ancient Chinese landscapes, portraying time as moving rhythmically toward heaven. This painting was inspired by Lewis’s poem, "Lost Garden." "Children asleep in deep meadows. Young popples Grew round the house and a wasp nest hung in the door, silvery like logs.....

  • Lost Garden read by Joan Haas

    Lost Garden by Janet Lewis is read by Joan Haas. Her sensitive reading is introduced with the sound of loud cicadas. The monotonous rhythm of the cicadas'clicking contrasts with the fleeting nature of granny’s garden.

  • The Earth Falls Away 81x12"OC '17

    Sliver oil painting, planets, flying children, groundless figures
    "Earth Falls Away" is a portrait of a girl forgetting the earth. She is groundless, imagining herself in another time and place. Swirling around her are forms, formulas and other fun mysteries. Lewis' "The Reader" also describes a lost reader, there the "Sun creeps under the eaves,... While he forgets the earth." Time passes.."And all so still.. But a.. "A creature fresh from birth Clings to the screen door, Heaving damp heavy wings." In timeliness, there is birth and death.

  • The Reader read by Catherine Hinton

    "The Reader" by Janet Lewis and read by Catherine Hinton. A reader is suspended in time, or lost in another time. Everything is still except the rustling of leaves. Catherine's captures that sense of suspended time with her soft, deep voice. Her voice seems like an embrace. Janet Lewis. Poems Old and New 1918-1978. Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, Chicago, IL, 1982, p.23

  • Morning Hue & Buried Fossil 81x12" OL'17

    poetry, sliver oil painting, landscape metaphor, time lost, time eternal
    Two of Lewis’ poems inspired this painting: Fossil, 1919 “I found a little ancient fern Closed in a reddish shale concretion, As neatly and a charmingly set in As my grandmother’s face In a round apricot velvet case. “ Fossil, 1975 “Changed and not changed. Three million years. This sunlight-summoned little fern Closed in a cenotaph of silt Lies in my hand, secret and safe. In quiet dark transformed to stone, Cell after cell to crystal grown, The pattern stays, the substance gone…. Changed and not changed. The spirit hears In drifting fern the morning air.”

  • Fossil 1919 read by Heine & Fossil 1975 read by Emory

    Two poems by Janet Lewis influenced the making of this painting. To picture the idea of geologic time, I used the sliver format.It's mostly deep dirt and hidden fossils. Carole Heine communicates the surprised of finding a fossil that's so ancient and yet, it resembles her grandmothers apricot case. Time is both ancient and present. Donna Emory reads the longer reflection about time's mysterious, and never ending change. The introductory sounds of tickling stream and shoveling set a mood and enhance the meditation upon time's meaning.

  • Lacing LIfe & Death 82x13" OL '15

    sliver oil painting, landscape metaphor, timeless life and death, entertwining roots and boy stands against nebulous sky
    “Lacing Life and Death” was inspired by Lewis’ “Meadow Turf”. I remember my son, an adventurous boy, who perilously climbed every obstacle and yet, always seemed rooted to the ground. I see his radiant smile as he is betwixt heaven and the earth. And I am reminded of Lewis’ last lines, “Oh, heart, here is your healing, here among / The fragrant living and dead.”

Visions Verses Voices - An Immersive Installation:Lost Boys/Found Men '00 -'19

This group of paintings brings us to poems addressing male anguish and pain. Tim Joyce, Maj Ragain and the well-known World War I poet and soldier, Wilfred Owen, wrote these poems that inspired these paintings. They point to male conflict, pain, warning and resolution. While painting, I imagined myself the young boy soldiers and the befuddled boy chasing a wolf. I am the boy standing tall, projecting my pectorals and all the while feeling ambivalence about growing up. A high school English teacher who is very familiar with Owen’s verse and his strong message about the old lie reads “Dolce Et Decorum Est”.  Joyce's poems were read by Jeff Murray, an accomplished local actor and "He Rushed Forth Without Weapons," a poem Maj Ragain wrote after seeing my painting, "My Two Selves" was appropriately read by a young man, a man who is still drawn to the sea but, was severely hurt by her waves. 

Visions Verses Voices is an on- going immersive exhibition of paintings accompanied with poems that expands my love of verse in communication with my visual imagery. As presented at the Delaplaine Art Center in Frederick, MD, twenty-five poems were featured read by various people: professionals such as, Tom Hall, program host, WYPR, singers, amateur actors and just interested individuals who put in the time to be coached. Their readings were played from speakers in continuous loops, strategically placed throughout the gallery.  All of the readers share an interest, even love, for the verse they read, which, I believe is conveyed through their unique voices.  My purpose in creating this immersive exhibition is to demonstrate the interrelationship of verse and painting by encouraging the viewer/listener to experience the voices of the readers while viewing my paintings.  The simultaneous experience makes for an enhanced appreciation of the poems and paintings.

The various readers’ tempos, cadences and unique rhythms add the visual experience by challenging the viewer to see relationships and dissonance. The poetry readers selected poems that resonated with them so that some poems are read by multiple readers.   Poems can be long stories conveying a sense of place and time with anecdotes. Others are shorter imagist works.
 
Damen endeavored to interpret expressively the gestalt of a poem with color, scale, and images creating her personal interpretations. These soundtracks are artworks too. Music or other sounds are blended with the verses introducing a mood of harmony or contrast with the verse or vision.   Additionally, the viewer/listener is able to access each audio from the exhibition's website https://visionsversesvoices.com/
Each painting image is followed by its recited relevant poem and soundscapes.
The poems are by Janet Lewis (1899-1998) from Poems Old and New 1918-1978, Maj Ragain, (1948-2018), Clouds Pile Up in the North: New & Selected Poems, Tim Joyce, Stone Mad: 2009 and the famous WWI poem, Dolce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen.

Jessica Damen thanks Lindsay Bottos, multimedia artist, for her expertise in collaborating on the production of the soundtracks.

1. Tim Joyce. Stone Mad: Poems .Murphy's Law Press, Lee, MA, 2009
2. Janet Lewis. Poems Old and New 1918-1978. Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, Chicago, IL
3. Wilfred Owen. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est
4. Maj Ragain, Clouds Pile Up in the North:New & Selected Poems, Press 53, Winston-Salen, NC, 2017
   

  • Seeking and Running 81 x 12" OC '19

    sliver oil painting, responsive painting, myth and quest
    An oil on canvas, 81 x 12 "sliver" painting references Tim Joyce's poem, "Small Boy With Stick Going After a Wolf." I was drawn to this poem's imagery because of the futility of his chase. A wolf chases its prey and here is the child's hubris. The suckling babe helpless and dependent for comfort, safety is also a reference to Remus and Romulus myth.

  • Small Boy With Stick Going After a Wolf read by Jeff Murray

    The poem, "Small Boy With a Stick Going After a Wolf " written by Tim Joyce is read by Jeff Murray. Murray's reading at first expresses authority and as he proceeds, the tempo slowly diminishes.

  • No Memorials for This Lot 81x12" OC '18

    Sliver oil painting, forgotten veterans, autumnal colors, cherry cheek boy, bent men inspired by A Row of Sunflowers in Late Autumn
    "No memorials for this lot"...nothing to do but wait for further orders ....their bowed, ruined grandeur awaits the axe of frost.." Tim Joyce's poignant poem equates a row of once brilliant, but now, dying row of Sunflowers to forgotten veterans. The poem is a chilling reminder of the long shadow of war upon men.

  • A Row Of Sunflowers In Late October read by Jeff Murray

    Murray's sonorous voice is the voice of conscience, reminding the listener not to forget those who were once golden as sun flowers, our military veterans.

  • Boyhood Coat of Mail & Reborn Old Man OL '15

    companion oil paintings for poem, imaginary baseball game, boy alone, humiliated, old man, assured, comforting
    The two companion paintings, oil on linen, 17.5x38" are responses to Ragain's "An Old Man Lies Down With the Lion" It is a story of transformation. The last verse, "Thou shall lie down with the lion. Thou shall be reborn as an old man." I imagined a boy, embarrassed, everyone is glaring at him. Perhaps he missed the big catch or struck out. He is humiliated and alone. That boy becomes an old man, he imagines comforting another boy or catching that hit.

  • An Old Man Lies Down With the Lion read by John Wright

    An Old Man Lies Down With the Lion a poem written by Maj Ragain and read by John Wright reminded me of the bitterness children can feel when they feel they haven't performed. Bitterness lodges when a kid can't ever please. The failed baseball play was my entry point.

  • Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori, 71x78" OL '04 '14

    Dolce et Decorum est, Pro Patria Mori is a line from the Roman lyrical poet Horace’s Odes (III.2.13). The line can be roughly translated into English as: “It is sweet and right to die for your country.” Wilfred Edward Salter Owen (1893-1918) used Horace’s line in his famous WWI poem of the same title. The last line forewarns the impressible boy the Dolce Et Decorum Est is the old lie.

  • Dolce Et Decorum Est read by James Scofield

    Scofield has taught Wilfred Owen's powerful poem and the pain and fear is loud and clear with his reading.

  • My Two Selves 60x28" OC '00

    two aspects of youth, strong, textural paint contrasts softer pastel paint, Kouros pose,
    The model's pose refers to ancient Greek kouros. It addresses the ambivalent identity of male youths caught between their most elemental needs for security, love and tenderness, and their fear of being labeled effeminate. American youths are not encouraged to live with balance and beauty and therefore my kouros are clothed. Their sexual nature is conflicted. I represented the conflict with two figures, one with his pectoral muscles strong and sure, the palette knife sweeping across his chest.

  • He Rushed Forth Without Weapons read by Archer Senft

    Soft and crashing waves introduce the reading of Maj Ragain's response poem "He Rushed Forth Without Weapons" to my painting, "My Two Selves." The qualities of water: life giving, tranquil, crashing and dangerous express perfectly the dichotomy seen in "My Two Selves." Senft's deliberate reading seems to express a hesitancy but someday, he will be one.

Visions Verses Voices - An Immersive Installation:Memories & Dreams '01 - '14

Maj Ragain penned all the poems in this section although, many were his response verses, after he saw my paintings. Maj and I met while we were resident fellows at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. While there, we found that our art dealt with truths about our experiences as parents revealing our hopes and fancies, foibles and failures. Whimsical and mysterious creatures, animals, toys and hidden faces, surround the boys and girls within my painted fields. Some children float on a whale, or stand on an oyster shell, a Madonna or, the shield of a blue bathing suite protect the young ones. Others are threatened by an ominous wall face or volcanic eruption. Perhaps they express Maj and my anxieties about our children' adolescence or, our hopes for their future.
References: 
Maj Ragain, (1948-2018), Clouds Pile Up in the North: New & Selected Poems
Damen, Jessica & Ragain, Maj, Vision to Verse-Verse to Vision: A Visual and Poetic Dialogue, exhibition catalog, June 15-September 4, 2004
Damen, Jessica & Ragain, Maj, Home To Sargasso Sea-A Long Journey of Loving Collaboration, exhibition catalog, June 1-July 14, 2018, KSU Downtown Gallery, Kent OH, Kent State University School of Art Collection and Galleries and the Wick Poetry Center with support from the Ohio Arts Council.

Visions Verses Voices is an on- going immersive exhibition of paintings accompanied with poems that expands my love of verse in communication with my visual imagery. As presented at the Delaplaine Art Center in Frederick, MD, twenty-five poems were featured read by various people: professionals such as, Tom Hall, program host, WYPR, singers, amateur actors and just interested individuals who put in the time to be coached. Their readings were played from speakers in continuous loops, strategically placed throughout the gallery.  All of the readers share an interest, even love, for the verse they read, which, I believe is conveyed through their unique voices.  My purpose in creating this immersive exhibition is to demonstrate the interrelationship of verse and painting by encouraging the viewer/listener to experience the voices of the readers while viewing my paintings.  The simultaneous experience makes for an enhanced appreciation of the poems and paintings.

The various readers’ tempos, cadences and unique rhythms add the visual experience by challenging the viewer to see relationships and dissonance. The poetry readers selected poems that resonated with them so that some poems are read by multiple readers.   Poems can be long stories conveying a sense of place and time with anecdotes. Others are shorter imagist works.
 
Damen endeavored to interpret expressively the gestalt of a poem with color, scale, and images creating her personal interpretations. These soundtracks are artworks too. Music or other sounds are blended with the verses introducing a mood of harmony or contrast with the verse or vision.   Additionally, the viewer/listener is able to access each audio from the exhibition's website:https://visionsversesvoices.com/
The Painting image is followed by the recited poem and soundscapes. 

Jessica Damen thanks Lindsay Bottos, multimedia artist, for her expertise in collaborating on the production of the soundtracks.

  • Jo, Jon Floating on Jonah's Whale 38x60 OC '03'14

    Two sleepers with whimisical and frightening characters in the environment. Jonah's whale holds them afloat. High key colors and textual paint, scraped surfaces and hidden images
    "Jo, Jon Floating on Jonah's Whale", was first painted early summer 2003 while Maj and I, took advantage of the interim session for former fellows. He saw me struggling with the lower right corner close to the whale eye. Often he just sat and observed while I painted. Oddly, I did not feel self-conscious. I told him that the painting was inspired by a photo of my two children taking an afternoon nap. But, of course, the story is so much more. I frequently return to my paintings when I want to improve an area. In 2014, I reworked Jon's hand and arm.

  • Contents of the Whale's belly read by Louise P Senft

    "Contents of the Whale's Belly, Grounded Off Race Point, Provincetown, Cape Cod, June 2003" by Maj Ragain is read by Louise Phipps Senft. The reading of this long poem referencing the biblical story of Jonah and the Whale is introduced with whale sounds and soft waves. Is is a perfect summer afternoon. Maj and Louise take on a wild ride to the abyss and back again.

  • Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep 62x34" OC '03

    childhood dreams, sleep anxieties , oil paint, narrative, religious iconography, witches
    "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" are lines from an old bedtime prayer. I remember reciting it when I was a child. The skewed perspective reflects a child’s fear that the sky is falling through the skylight. The environment is filled with Christian and contemporary imagery. Goya’s witches cackle and sharks swim in the fish bowl. The pained Madonna glances toward the sleeping child. My friend and collaborating poet, Maj Ragain wrote “A Dreamer Sails into the Land of Nod” in response to this painting.

  • A Dreamer Sails Into the Land of Nod read by Louise Senft

    Louise Phipps Senft read Maj Ragain's responsive poem, entitled "A Dreamer Sails Into the Land of Nod." It is introduced with a mobile's playing of Brahm's Lullabye. Senft's reading is energetic. She captures the environment of playfulness, as well as, dread. After some twist and turns with philosophical reflection, her voice softens. She soothes the little pilgrim.

  • Quick River in a Green Time 50x74.5" OC '02

    goddess quest, impasto, oil, three muses, response painting, poem
    A response painting to Maj Ragain’s poem, “For My Daughter Meg, Graduating From Kent Roosevelt High School” also loosely references Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus”. This “goddess” is a come hither adolescent on top of an upside down seashell. I imagine my goddess evolving from the green sinewy girl and more charming modern girl wearing sport gear. The environment is both verdant and perilous, a creepy Rumpelstiltskin imp lurks and they are surrounded by unnavigable, fast white rapids.

  • For My Daughter Me Graduating...read by Rufus Lusk III

    Reader is Rufus Lusk, a retired businessman and clergyman. The introductory sound of a rushing stream sound implies the rapidity of change and a child's growth. Before one knows it, the girl is a woman. But the distance can be a turbulent ride. Rufus chose this poem because he is a father of two girls.

  • Say Cheese 58x50" OC '00

    memory, facade, oil, impasto paint, poetry
    The painting is nostalgic but with a bit of unease. These girls are not happy, the title, “Say Cheese” is an ironic mention. Maj Ragain’s response poem, “What the Dead Remember” takes a darker turn. He imagines the girl with no name. She is dead and forgotten. The suburban idyllic atmosphere is pierced with a dose of mortal reality. Can the listeners of the poem hear the dissonance between the saccharin colors and foreboding message?

  • Wha the Dead Remember read by Jill Goodman

    "What the Dead Remember" was read by Jill Goodman, an educator who was coached to read the poem. She begins her clear reading with a jaunty rhythm and then slows as the sad, forgotten girl is revealed. The reading, which is introduced with the sounds of children playing, juxtaposes the ironic sense of the painting with the more somber feeling of the poem.

  • My Private Garden 62x28"OC '00

    Contemporary korai, enigmatic smile, saturated oil paint
    My youngest daughter modeled for “My Private Garden” one cool early autumn day. Her posture and form were as perfect as the korai she was asked to mimic. Yet, she retained her individuality and the strength of a modern girl. While painting her from the photographs taken that day, I envisioned her bathing suit, as a shield, protecting her from the volcanic eruption of emotions I knew would erupt in a few years. She was transitioning from the impish baby (compliments of Van Gogh) to a girl on the cusp of adolescence.

  • Holding & Being Held- read by Olivia Hollender

    Olivia Hollander's reading of Maj Ragain's poem, "Holding and Being Held by the Breath: A Solitude" emphasizes that the girl is trapped. Olivia reads "...landlocked, heavy heeled, hands at her sides. The dirt beneath her swims into cloud. She cannot leave, hostage to the planter’s trowel " carefully, puncturing each word.

Visions Verses Voices - An Immersive Installation:Solace & Transcendence-'14 - '21

Beginning with artworks inspired by Ragain poems, "Be Secret & Exult” and “You Will Need the Wings of a Crane” my heavily impasto paintings confronted two main themes: fear of death and liberation from self imposed limitations. These artworks were reworked in January 2021.  Other Ragain poems included in this portfolio describe nostalgic remembrances that taught important lessons. Maj even introduced us to a ghost who reminds us that, after the grave, still, we wish for our voices to be heard.  The one Lewis poem posted here, “Winter Garden” is a sensual and rhythmic verse, the dreamed garden of safety for “Child, dream of a pomegranate tree - Weighted with ruby, showered with gold,…” I was drawn to Lewis’ poem for its  vow, “To ward and to cherish even as now, Now that you sleep you joy to replenish, Each branch, each varied lifting bough, That not a leaf in your garden perish.” I well remember that wish of perfect garden of protection for my children.
 
References:
Maj Ragain. Burley One Dark Sucker Fired : Collected Poems. Working Lives Series. Bottom Dog Press. Huron, OH, p15, p48, p.59
Janet Lewis. Poems Old and New 1918-1978. Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, Chicago, IL 1982 p. 72

Visions Verses Voices is an on- going immersive exhibition of paintings accompanied with poems that expands my love of verse in communication with my visual imagery. As presented at the Delaplaine Art Center in Frederick, MD, twenty-five poems were featured read by various people: professionals such as, Tom Hall, program host, WYPR, singers, amateur actors and just interested individuals who put in the time to be coached. Their readings were played from speakers in continuous loops, strategically placed throughout the gallery.  All of the readers share an interest, even love, for the verse they read, which, I believe is conveyed through their unique voices.  My purpose in creating this immersive exhibition is to demonstrate the interrelationship of verse and painting by encouraging the viewer/listener to experience the voices of the readers while viewing my paintings.  The simultaneous experience makes for an enhanced appreciation of the poems and paintings.
The various readers’ tempos, cadences and unique rhythms add the visual experience by challenging the viewer to see relationships and dissonance. The poetry readers selected poems that resonated with them so that some poems are read by multiple readers.   Poems can be long stories conveying a sense of place and time with anecdotes. Others are shorter imagist works.
 
Damen endeavored to interpret expressively the gestalt of a poem with color, scale, and images creating her personal interpretations. These soundtracks are artworks too. Music or other sounds are blended with the verses introducing a mood of harmony or contrast with the verse or vision.   Additionally, the viewer/listener is able to access each audio from the exhibition's website:https://visionsversesvoices.com/

Jessica Damen thanks Lindsay Bottos, multimedia artist, for her expertise in collaborating on the production of the soundtracks.

  • Lalla Finds Her Wings, 88x36x3"OC '21&04

    88x36"OC, woman with her arms thrown back like wings, crane and mountains of children.
    "Lalla Finds Her Wings", 88x36x3" was reworked in'21 after the long confinement of the Pandemic's lock down. Indeed, I felt liberated. This painting is inspired by another Ragain poem, "You Will Need the Wings of a Crane." I was drawn to his poem because of the story of the poet Lalla. "In bad weather, she was naked. She lived in her soul. She wanted paradise. What husband could give her that." This painting expresses a body partially landlocked. She is ready to fly away.

  • Be Secret & Exult 88x36x3"OC'21

    Impasto oil on canvas, 88x36", lone rock climber over turbulent water falls, Icurus falls , kayakers beat the rapids, dinosaurs in the rocks
    "Be Secret & Exult", 88x36x3" oil on canvas was reworked from my 2004 version. It is a painting inspired by a Ragain poem of the same title. This heavily impasto artwork took a lot of strength. I loaded my palette knife with thick oil paint varied in tone and hue and then used my entire body moving strokes to make pectoral muscles, strained gluts and calf muscles. The climber's nearly impossible finger and toe holds suspended over turbulent currents was the image of death defying strength.

  • Worker Ants & Demise of Benny the Brave each12x12"OP'16

    companion oil paintings for poem, in one children are searching under white culmulus clouds hiding whimsical character, the other two children hug, comforted and surrounded by a deep green lake
    The two 12x12" oils on wood panels are companion paintings which respond to Ragain's poem"Clouds Pile Up North." This long, narrative takes the reader from a quaint summer scene and exposes a raw anger in a child. My approach was to identify with the children, their inquisitiveness, fantastical clouds and a more distant jumping child. The next panel of murky green offers comfort and forgiveness.

  • Clouds Pile Up North read by Tom Hall

    Maj Ragain's poem "Clouds Pile Up North" begins with an idyllic setting. The old man recounts his playfulness with the local children. Tom Hall, (radio program host, WYPR) uses his melodious voice to bring us to that time. We see and hear each child. They are not easily fooled. The mood changes as does the readers voice. There is tension and a warning given to the youngsters.

  • A Fisherman's Aurora Borealis 12x12" OP '16

    responsive painting to poem, memory, luminous red sky, foreground grasses, distant barely discernable fisherman
    Maj saw my painitng and it immediately reminded him of his poem, "A Luminous Phenomenon". My painting imagines Maj as a Toaist fisherman, a speck in the universe, under the Northern Lights. After a doctors visit where "She knows I am waist deep in muddy water." Maj remembers the awe he felt under the Northern Lights as he faces his deminishing health.

  • A Luminous Phenomenon read by Tom Hall

    “A Luminous Phenomenon” is read by Tom Hall (Program host, WYPR). We enter this poem through a doctors office. Maj's health is not good and "She (the doctor) knows I am waist deep in muddy water." Then we switch to the cosmic sphere. He recalls his father’s love. The Northern Lights, an amazing phenomenon is shown to the sleeping child. He is part of the eternal.

  • Little Sister, 12x12" O/P '16

    responsive painting to poem, green skinny girl, grave marker, boy staring through the back car window, memory, mortality, acceptance
    This painting is about the ghost the poet recalls in his poem "Winter for Skylark and Little Sister." I was drawn to the poem even though I found it elusive. The girl ghost wanted to be heard, she had so much more to say. Perhaps Maj is also wondering how he will be heard after the grave?

  • Winter for Skylark & Little Sister read by Steve Heine

    Steve Heine, the reader, is a father and a bank president. Recorded during a very busy day, he nonetheless read with sympathy for the speechless.

  • Wishful Vow, 18x46" O/L '14

    dreams, responsive poem, landscape metaphors, child on plank
    Janet Lewis' poem "Winter Garden" inspired this fantastic landscape and a child's perilous walk along an unsecured plank. Lewis recalls a child in a beautiful garden with calendulas, pomegranate tree and twisted vines. Then, like so many fairy princesses, she pricks her finger, but is not cursed. Instead Lewis makes a vow, "Now that you sleep your joy to replenish, Each branch, each varied lifting bough, That not a leaf in your garden perish." It is a “Wishful Vow”.

Leda, the Swan and the Original Rape Myth '03-'16

During the summer of 2001 poet and collaborator, Maj Ragain, introduced to me the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan. I was captivated by the myth for a number of reasons but, not least of all for the fact that,  my mother’s life long depression was at least partially resulting from  sexual molestation or rape (euphemism were used to describe "the trauma")  by a landlord’s son, when my mother was a girl. This awareness led me to a broader interest in different versions of the myth and the its representation of the myth in Western art.

The later patriarchal  Greek myth derives from an even more ancient love chase myth. Prior to patriarchal religions, the goddess, known as Lepta or Lento, pursues a god until she devours him and a swan takes him north to a final resting place. Ironically, the ancient Greeks changed the swan from the symbol of the goddess’ triumph to her downfall and rape. (1) The Hellenistic version has Zeus disguised as a swan, so that he can rape the beautiful Leda without upsetting his goddess wife, Hera.

Visual representations of Leda’s rape from the early Renaissance through the nineteenth century show a compliant, soft and willing Leda. To this day complicity is a frequent rationalization for rape. This series is painted from a Leda’s point of view engaging the viewer into imagined emotional responses. Below is Maj Ragain's response poem to my painting, "Leda and the Angry Swan."

                 Leda's Voice, Under Sky, Over Water (2)

                       I lie in the wreckage of my longing
                        which called him down to me.
                        I remember myself before Zeus settled
                        over me, in the guise of a swan,
                        downy chest against my nipples.
                        That world is gone.
 
                        I have been opened, my thighs spread
                        by wings beating all around me,
                        churning my blood into fever.
                        I am slathered with his god seed,  
                        planted on this tortoise shell bed,
                        pinned down by clawed feet on bare skin.
                        His wings, spread across the sky,
                        eclipse the sun beneath which
                        all things are his domain.
                        I was mine.  Now, I am his.
 
                        I will scissor my hair to the scalp
                        so he will not desire me if he returns.
 
                        Hera, his wife, has found us.
                        He rises in anger at her meddling.
 
                        I am sore.
                        The milky way swims in my belly.
 
                        Wherever you go, my empty eye follows.
                                                                                               -   Maj Ragain                
                                                                                                  Jan. 5, 2004

The above Ragain poem was written after he saw my painting, Leda and the Angry Swan. The verse is his reaction to my painting. The opening of his poem, "I lie in the wreckage of my longing/ which called him down to me" angered me. Because  in my opinion, the lines feed directly into one of the rape's myths, that is, the victim asks for it. I decided to do another painting, a prequel entitled, What's This in response to those lines. The other paintings in this series lead the viewer through a process of transcendence. By the end  Leda is dancing goddess, her arm raised, as if reaching toward heaven.

(1) Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths:Volume I, London, England: Peguin Books, 1960
(2) Maj Ragain, Poet & Jessica Damen, Painter, "Vision to Verse - Verse to Vision : A Visual and Poetic Dialogue, Verde Gallery: Champaign, IL, 2004
http://bmoreart.com/2016/08/studio-visit-jessica-damen.html

  • Leda & the Angry Swan 72x102" OC '03

    Leda supine, Leda's eye focal point, tortoise shell, angry white swan
    The historical images of the Leda myth, whether pruriently imagined or disguised as “divine” sensual rapture are from a male perspective. My goal when painting this Leda is to make Leda’s eye the focus of the painting. The viewer cannot escape her gaze, the window to her soul. She is overpowered, but not subdued. The Swan-Zeus is not a loving “divine spirit” but rather, a territorial, aggressive being.

  • Ragain's poem Leda's Voice read by Lindsay Bottos & background sounds

    Lindsay Bottos, read Ragain's poem "Leda's Voice, Under Sky, Over Water" after my installation of "Visions Verses Voices" closed. Even though, "Leda and The Angry Swan" wasn't included in the original Delaplaine exhibition this painting and Ragian's responsive poem and my painting "What's This" are nevertheless, integral to "Visions Verses Voices" goals. Lindsay's reading is made more powerful by her soft, timorous voice subtly conveys Leda's pain.

  • What's This? 60x79" OL, '16

    Rape of Leda, mythology, oil painting, feminist perspective
    "What's This?" describes the moment just before Leda's violation. It is a response to Ragain's opening lines: " I lie in the wreckage of my longing which called him down to me. I remember myself before Zeus settled over me,..... That world is gone." As a prequel my point is to create ambiguity. What longing? Why the piglet and nest? What does her expression reveal to you?

  • She Walked Away 22x30" ink,wc/paper '10

    ink painting, watercolor, swan and girl
    "She Walked Away" imagines her dissociation from the physical and emotional trauma of rape.

  • Remember Myself, 22x30" ink,WC/paper, 2010

    ink, watercolor, swan and fish
    Ragain opening phrase recognizes that after rape one is never the same. Leda is gone and can only remember her former self. "I remember myself before Zeus settled over me, in the guise of a swan, downy chest against my nipples. That world is gone."

  • Leda's Revenge 11x14" OP '14

    oil, thick paint, swan, birds, turtle, girl
    "Leda’s Revenge" is a revenge fantasy for every woman who has ever wanted to kill her rapist.

  • Leda Dancing I 30x22" ink,wc/paper '12

    ink painting, watercolor, swan and girl
    Leda Dancing I and II envisions a transcendent goddess, her finger pointed toward heaven.

  • Leda Dancing I 30x22" ink/wc/paper '12

    ink painting, watercolor, swan and girl
    Leda Dancing I and II envisions a transcendent goddess, her finger pointed toward heaven.

  • What's This III 20.5x17" ink/wc/paper '16

    ink brush painting, swan, leda in shadow
    “What’s This III” an ink brush painting on Hsuan paper is part of a series developed after I completed the oil, “What’sThis?” My use of Chinese ink and brush encourage me to paint Leda’s different expressions. Here is the swan overpowering her.

  • What's This V, 25x19" ink/wc/paper '16

    ink painting, watercolor, swan and girl
    “What’s This V” has a lighter brush and the swan’s movement is freer. Leda’s expression is unique with each version.

The Other Story- Ariadne/ Heroine '06-'16

The Other Story series re-envisions the mythical story of Ariadne; the forgotten heroine of the Minotaur myth.  This fanciful and frightening story may be unfamiliar to today’s viewer and yet, it is a story experienced by many lovers, where one sacrifices to save or support another, and then is betrayed by the one who was helped.  I have recast this story of love and betrayal by re-imagining the heroine as a victor in self-realization. She draws strength from her intimate female friends and herself. The women wrestlers’ muscular bodies subvert the notion of femininity. They also personify a seemingly unending competition and internal struggle women have experienced with love and lovers.  The ancient myth is said to have two endings: one where Ariadne is abandoned by Theseus and subsequently hangs herself, and the other, where after her abandonment, Ariadne is found by the god Bacchus, and becomes his consort. My re-told story is not wrapped up tidily with either a tragic or happy ending. My Ariadne is neither a goddess nor a victim, but rather a fully realized woman, who draws strength from her struggle. http://bmoreart.com/2016/08/studio-visit-jessica-damen.html

  • Ariadne's Triumph 21.5x28.75" OL '16

    women wrestling, mythic characters, layered, muted figures
    “Ariadne’s Triumph” was completed during 2016. It brings this personal myth narrative to conclusion. The painting field is layered and muted. Within the field are the personages of Ariadne: wrestlers, brave and enduring, muscular women. She is the heroine, who completes her quest by killing the Minotaur.

  • Epic Wrestlers 63x127" OC '09

    women wrestling, mythic characters,
    My re-envisioning of this myth sees Ariadne as neither Bacchus’ wife nor the abandoned suicide. She and her counterpart are muscular, wrestling with one another and self. This epic-wrestling match is a quest for life and a struggle for self-identity.

  • Hold on Tight 62x28" OL '08

    mythic heroine, warm and cool colors, symbols of the myth
    “Hold on Tight” is Ariadne before she decides her path. Back lit with stark, bright imagery, her facial profile is elegant and regal. Her hair is built with colorful, twisting palette knife marks. She sits within the belly of the bull. Her throne is both her power and nemesis. At her feet is the red thread, Theseus' lifeline and her fate. This Ariadne has muscular legs. She is an athlete, although she holds onto herself because it takes courage to defy. She is the author of her fate. I image her taking a sip of wine before her battle.

  • Shadows 37x29" OL '08

    myth, heroine, Minotauromachy, shadows, red field
    Picasso’s “Minotauromachy” inspired “Shadows”. Whereas Picasso’s print has a girl holding the lit candle, I have a young woman, Ariadne, her spine exposed, is bathed in red and black shadows. The woman is complex and full fleshed. A sense of quiet unease permeates the atmosphere. While the monster “other” lurks, it is the mature woman who holds the focal point.

  • Jumping Bulls 52x77" OL 08

    myth, women, heroine
    The Surrealists concentrated on the dual nature of man and beast as personified in the Minotaur. But “Jumping Bulls” directs the viewer’s attention to the relationship of Ariadne and her girlfriends. It is a “what if” story, while recognizing that The Bull is a presence, this story is from the woman’s perspective. In the wall environment are images from Minoan wall mosaics of bare breasted women jumping bulls. Their near nakedness is not for the male gaze. This painting is a counterpoint to hyper-sexualized or helpless images of women.

  • Strange Guests 70x62" OL '07

    Minotaur, Picasso reference, family myth, bacchanian
    “Strange Guests” integrates one of Picasso’s bacchanian prints and two of his early 20th century somber women. I wove into this narrative my own family. The oil painting presents a picture of complementarities in color, line and form. The Minotaur, the projection of human’s dual nature, is also a bit of a fluff with his long eyelashes.

  • Who Opened the Window 65x77" OL '08

    bacchanian, myth, family, magical realism,
    "Who Opened the Window" places Picasso’s depiction of libidinal and aggressive energies within the context of a family gathering. Here the grotesque double is an intruder at the dinner table and the bacchanian feast is integral to the family’s posturing.

  • Conundrum 24x18" OP '09

    heroine, blue color field, bull and bull tamer
    "Conundrum” is a simple portrait of a pensive girl.

  • Touching the Beast 24x18" OP '09

    mythic heroine, warm and cool colors, symbols of the myth
    Once again referencing a print by Picasso, I envision the girl heroine embracing her beast.

  • Punch, 16x20" OP '09

    mythic heroine, wrestlers
    Ariadne punches her way out of her conundrum.

"The Past is never dead. It's not even past." Wm. Faulkner '00-'16

The photograph, the modern person's means to immortal portrayal, is often the source for my work. This portfolio ends with “The Long Immortal Day ”, a portrait of my husband’s daughter, Adriana, who was tragically killed in a car accident. Her photographs, my husband and close family members’ memories are all that remain of her.  We soothe mortality’s erasure with the consolation that a life fully lived is sufficient.  But when death steals a child’s life, how does one find comfort? A parent, Vincenzo Gulotta, whose son was dying of leukemia, sought comfort from Janet Lewis with a poem request. I happened upon Lewis’ response poem, “For the Father of Sandro Gulotta” before I attempted Adriana’s memorial portrait. I needed the poet’s verse so I could reenter that time of irreplaceable lose. The poem crystalizes Lewis’ preoccupations with time, death and birth using the metaphor of the day lily to capture the simplicity of the child’s life and the recognition that the day lily’s purpose is completed within a day.  And while the day lily serves as a “paradigm for the formal organization of time: days, seasons and years” (1)it also is a living thing that;“…drank the sunlit air.
In one long day
All that it needed to do in this world
It did,…” (2)
Keeping with the theme that, "The Past is never dead. It's not even past." (Wm. Faulkner), I also include paintings addressing contemporary issues: the long history of American racism, the indoctrinating a soldier identity in children, the facade of the "perfect" suburban white American family.   
Early in this series my own children are models and they inspired my visual wanderings. Other times, I use found photographs. As the series progresses they move from being my child to, Child, a universal source for my bemused wonderment. She is a whisperer or a seer. Her role and demeanor changes as my interest lead me to and from fairytales, myths and tragedy.   I paint energetically using both brushes and palette knives as if sculpting forms and carving planes, constantly erasing and re-applying images and lines. The “pentimenti” traces are Time’s marks, which are neither fully hidden nor, revealed.
[1] Lewis, Janet. Poems Old and New, 1918-1978. Swallow Press Books: Ohio University Press, 1982, from Introduction. Helen Trimpi, p.xv
[2] Ibid. p. 77

  • Touch Me Not 60 x 48" OC'15

    social justice, psychological portraits, oil on canvas, symbolism,
    "Touch Me Not" was completed after the massacre of nine parishioners at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, June 2015. Using antique photos, I juxtaposed a white schoolboy ready to restore the Southern antebellum order with the racist Confederate flag threaded through two African American boys picking cotton. Interrelationships reveal a deeper truth, the roots of a pernicious and unrelenting American racism. “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” In the "George Floyd Social Conscience Art Movement" collection, JW Jones, Charlotte, NC.

  • Slogging Thru the Hungry Ghost Swamp 30x28" OC '16

    imaginary environment of a lotus swamp and woman jogger, slogging through the swamp of hungry ghosts.
    Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral win of the presidency is a perfect illustration of Faulkner’s insight about the past.The lotus, a Buddhist bodhisattva symbol and “hungry ghosts”, creatures who did not control their appetites during life and are therefore, condemned for eternity never satiated by food, wealth or sex, are the metaphorical environment for the anticipated slog needed to get through the next four years.

  • I Am Here 37x27" OL '15

    daughter, father, dyad, oil painting, dolphins, dead fish, responsive painting poem
    A staring toddler crushes her solid leg upon a dying fish and a bewilder father looks on. I believe it is a strange juxtaposition since children are supposed to be cute or playful. This toddler is daring the viewer saying- I AM HERE. She crushes the wild life of the fish. Do not mess with her. Her dad has tight lips and eyes glaring. Distance and tension separates them, which is relieved by an environment of playful dolphins.

  • Raised With Walls 77x47" OL '14

    In a field of red, layered images of marching, saluting boys
    Several antique photographs were sources for "Raised With Walls - Bad Education". I identify with boys of an era. I feel their desire to please. They are not yet formed but are boys molded within a field of red blood. They are caught in an endless chain of mis-education. It is bad education when young boys are taught to fill boots they are too young to understand.

  • It's In Our Hands 23x13" OL '14

    childhood trauma, guns, foreboding, frigthening creatures, bad education
    A small black and white snapshot, taken around 1948 inspires "It’s In Our Hands." The photograph both disturbing and provocative is of a very young girl holding a rifle. Around her are laughing adults as she struggles to hold it. My imagination wandered and I saw those adults as apparitions representing teachers of death and of unthinking callousness. My subtle use of red forebodes the loss of blood. Over the ensuing five decades, American society has witnessed an alarming rate of child deaths due to rifles and handguns.1. Guns kill children daily.

  • Easter Sunday Portrait 67x84 OC '07

    Surreal family portrait, using reference to art history. Father stiff, daughters, one gleeful the other snarly, mother in between, skull like face with an Easter bonnet
    I found an old Kodachrome color family photograph. My family is all dressed up for an Easter Day Portrait. The photo portrayed that perfect 1960 family: strong dad, adorable daughters dressed in pastels and a beautiful mom. But this painting is not a copy of the original. Instead, I saw something else: a stilted man, a girl with a snarly smile separated by a mother from the other girl, a gleeful girl from a more current time. The mother's face is skull like in her Easter bonnet. She is almost a monster pushing out children like so many decorated Easter eggs.

  • Who Are You, Children? 48 x 62" O/C '01

    September 11, 2001, painting, poetry, children, archetypes
    "Who are You? Children?" This painting was started during the idyllic summer of 2001 while I basked in the sun drenched days and intellectual bliss of the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA residency. It was completed after the horrific events of September 11, 2001 and therefore took a ominous turn. Here are five archetypes: the impish demon, the seer, the male and female hapless witnesses and the fallen doll.

  • Hanging By A Limb 12x12"OC '01

    childhood trauma, Sept. 11, 2001, psychological reactions, oil paint, narrative
    September 11, 2001 occurred while my daughter was in the fourth grade. Her school, in Montgomery County, MD, about fifteen miles outside of DC was located in an area where parents were told not to pick up their children. Apparently there was concern that the roads would become too congested. Joanna told me that the kids in her class gave each other comfort. One girl's father was an American Airlines pilot and the kids rallied around her. I concentrated on the mutual comfort the children shared while the monkey holding on to the tree limb represents the horrors of the day's events.

  • Gifts 44x72"OL '00

    immortal moment, memory, child psychology, oil painting
    "Gifts"- Three generations are pictured here. In the foreground two sisters have just opened a Christmas gift. The one girl gazes at an unknown sight and her eyes mirror the doll’s. Their mother is the recorder of this still moment in what could have been a frenzied morning. In the sunlit hallway is a blurred painting. Look closely you will see another Christmas morning pictured.

  • Long Immortal Day 60 x 30" OC'00

    portrait of child, death, immortality, remembrance, memorial
    Originally four-year old Adriana was photographed naked, holding a towel after shedding a sandy, wet bathing suit. Since the day lily represents the immortality of a child’s day, she holds it. Adriana is that sweet child frozen in time. The child herself has a different concept of time. “Who shall say if the day was too brief, For the flower, if time lack? Had it not, like the children, all Time In their long, immortal day? Ibid, p77

It Is Rumored- Two sided Scroll '11

The “It is Rumored” project began with a question. “Why is this beautiful place in the Chesapeake Bay called Bloody Point?” The answers to that question led me to paint a 84 x 48" free hanging scroll on Mulberry paper using ink, watercolor, acrylic and gouache paints. The stories associated with this Point are unquestionably bloody. This scroll suspended by an American Eagle door knocker is inspired by mysteries that are legendary surrounding Bloody Point: the site of many horrific documented and rumored events. It was rumored that dead and dying slaves were tossed from ships at this deepest point of The Bay after the Middle Passage. Unquestionably many thousands of enslaved men and women were transported through these waters. Time is painted as “all over” flowing stories. The length of the scroll suggests the mysteries hidden by the water’s depth and obscured by time. A hung pirate is left to rot surrounded by the abundant beauty and bounty of The Bay even as Native Americans are slaughtered. To convey the idea that rumors and time obscure facts and sow confusion, the two paintings are mounted back-to-back. Consequently, while looking at one side, one can see the muted impressions of the other narrative image. Even though this is one painting, there is neither a front nor back. The image can be seen from both sides, encouraging many perspectives.

  • It is Rumored side A

    84 x 40" Chinese ink, watercolor, acrylic, gouache on Mulberry paper, suspended from a wood dowel and an American Eagle door knocker. I imagined side A of “It is Rumored” as a remembrance of murdered slaves who were cruelly tossed from ships. There is no documentation from insurance claims to support the practice of disposal of dead or near dying slaves at Bloody Point. But it is documented at other sites off the coast of Africa. (1) Although it does seem possible that if one wanted to hide nefarious deeds, the deepest part of the Chesapeake Bay would hide the evidence.

  • It is Rumored Side B

    84 x 40" (image size) Chinese ink, watercolor, acrylic, gouache on Mulberry paper, suspended from a wood dowel and an American Eagle door knocker. I imagined the B-side of “It is Rumored” as a remembrance of massacred Native Americans who unwittingly arrived for an "interview” only to be killed by colonists. There is a court record documenting the trial of a pirate who murdered four seamen. The pirate was tried, condemned to death by hanging and his body was left to rot at Bloody Point. I imagined the bounty of The Bay and its surrounding land.

  • detail upper A side of It is Rumored- Bloody Point

    Water fowl feed as bodies struggle to survive.

  • detail middle A of It is Rumored

    One is able to see the muted image of the hung pirate, as fish swim by and falling figures descend to the abyss.

  • detail of lower A side of It is Rumored

    Side A lower section is dense with black ink and saturated color creating a more chaotic scene.

  • detail of upper B side of It is Rumored

    Side B upper section: A ship under sail, one that brought slaves across the ocean is reflected in the water. Bubbles of expelled air are released. Elegant Blue Herons are reflected as other waterfowl dip into the Bay searching for food. One can see through to the other side, the falling side. Beauty and dread are combined within each frame.

  • detail of lower B side of It is Rumored

    The veins of the tobacco leaf are juxtaposed with falling figures.

  • Installation of It is Rumored

    Installation shot of Side A of "It is Rumored" from "Altered Truths - Fractured Myths" two person show with Oletha DeVane, at City Arts Gallery, Baltimore MD, Nov 2011- Jan 2012

  • Installation of It is Rumored- Bloody Point

    Installation shot of Side B of "It is Rumored" from "Altered Truths - Fractured Myths" two person show with Oletha DeVane, at City Arts Gallery, Baltimore MD, Nov 2011- Jan 2012

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Jessica Damen Fine Art

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Touch Me Not 60 x 48" OC'15

social justice, psychological portraits, oil on canvas, symbolism,
Jessica DamenVisual Arts
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