JESSICA SIMANOWSKI

Consciousness Robber

Hi Jessie. Finally we`ve made it! People should know that my guest has been very busy the last few days with the creation of her new website which is still under construction. Tell us a bit about it.


Hello Daniela. What a pleasure to talk to you! Yes, I have been busy with creating my new website, unfortunately it is not ready yet but will go online within the coming weeks. I am very excited about it because I wanted to have a new website since quite some time now because my old website doesn`t represent me anymore. On my new website I will only show all of my new paintings but also the plush toys and accessoires that I have been doing. I am planning to expand that section with handpainted vinyl and wood toys also. The website will also have a blog section and a shop section, so that people will be able to buy directly from my website later on.


Are you promoting new artworks upon there?


Yes, actually I won`t be showing any of my old paintings there. First of all because the style that I have developed during the last few years does not really have much to do with my older paintings anymore.
I´m a real paint addict and created a lot of paintings during the last ten years. At first I was playing around with different styles and techniques, from dreamy to abstract, layered to figurative, just all kind of things, trying to find my own style. I had a lot of gallery shows and a good income. But then a few years ago I kinda locked myself away and went really deep within. I detached myself from mass-consciousness and especially the art system. Meaning that I stopped working with galleries or interacting with other artists. I wanted to be absolutly independent and detached from it all, in order to truly do the stuff that I like, without considering what a gallery or people would say about it. So I locked myself away, painted like a maniac, had very little contact to the outside world and went crazy, lol. I felt it was nessecary to do that for myself. I found myself melt all different styles and techniques that I had played with before and melt it into my very own style.
That is the reason why I won´t be showing any of my old paintings on my website. And they are all sold by now anyway.

Cool Cat

You were born in Germany but are living and working in Portugal and I read that you were traveling a lot. How did that influence your art?


I was born in Germany. After I finished college I wanted to go to the art academy in Germany but only got a seat for the next semester. So I had half a year for myself and decided to take my mountainbike, some clothes, little money and just flew to Portugal to job around during the summer. I fell in love with the country and never went back to Germany, other than for christmas to visit my family. That was in 1996. Four years later I launched my first artshow in Portugal and it was a big success. So I didn`t even consider to ever go to the art academy, which I am pretty happy about because that way I could really just be authentic in my own style.
My best friends live in the USA, so I got to travel there a few times to then travel through the States, which I always enjoyed very much. But I have a deep passion for Europe within me. I just love Europe. But yes, traveling around is always an inspiring thing to do. What influences me the most are colours, sounds and smells. Just the little things in life, for example feeling the wind on my skin. I immidiately get colours and sounds with that in my imagination. My imagination is pretty wild and highly active, just by the way. Lol.


Back to your work, it is such an explosion of colors and materials. What kind of texture do you use the most?


I work with multi layers. I usually start with painting an abstract painting. Then I step back and allow the painting to talk to me and show me what it wants to be. I just put my vision on blurry and then I usually see the figures or images within the abstract painting. Then I outline these imagies, paint around them. Then I add many more layers to it. So actually the background becomes the foreground and the foreground the background.
In the past I worked a lot with modelling paste and sand. Sometimes I still use these materials but mostly I create my paintings with acrylicpaints and oilpastels only.


"In my paintings people should see...."


.......whatever they want to see. I believe that this is the magic of art. Because art triggers the imagination of the observer, this expanded and free place within that unfortunatly most people forget to enter within their day to day lifes. I guess that is why humans love art because art connects them with their own inner source. It´s like a bumper sticker of consciousness, saying "Remember where you come from and who you truly are".
So who am I to force a certain view on the observer of my art? I want them to use their own creative and imaginative abilities.


"In my painting I see..."


...........an expression of myself in relation to the world. I guess my paintings are nice little pieces of my own inner world. Just like you would take pictures with your camera when you go and visit new places. I go within and take pictures of my own world, then smash them on canvas.

Jessie at work

Any upcoming show for you?


Nothing planned for this year. Like I said, during the last few years I totally detached myself from the art scene. But now I am ready to come out again and have some things up my pocket for next year. Nothing fully settled yet though.

Trust and Oneness

You got an online store on Etsy also. How is going your business there? Are you satisfied?


Yes, I do have a shop on Etsy. No, I am not very satisfied. I figured that Etsy would probably work better for me if I would sell only prints or cheaper things. But I am selling original paintings there. I was able to sell some originals there but it could be better. But I love the idea of Etsy and always love places where a lot of artists come together. And actually Etsy was the only "public place" where I showed any of my art during the last years.


If you could choose an artist to work with, who would it be?


Hm. Probably not an artist from the past because they were masters of their time. But that was an old time and their stuff wouldn`t rock today anymore. I think there are a lot of cool artists on this planet right now and I love to see where the art is going in general. So maybe I would want to paint with an art genius from the future. Someone who is going to rock this planet in 2050. Or maybe I just connect with my own future self and invite that part of me in to paint with me : )

fulfillment sucks

Tell us a dream on which you have been inspired on your artwork.


That is a funny question because ALL of my paintings get born in my dreams. I have this really weird thing going on. It happens in that state where I start dreaming at night, yet I am still somehow here in this reality. It´s in that inbetween zone. So every night before I fall asleep, I enter this huge gallery and it shows me hundreds of paintings that I haven`t painted yet. The same happens in the morning when I am still asleep, yet slowly enter my body and this reality again. So I usually wake up in the morning and remember all those paintings I have seen in my future gallery in my dreamstate. So I jump out of bed and start to paint :)