Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Blinkhorn.
Hi Jessica, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Austell, GA, just north-west of downtown in Cobb County. I come from a line of creatives. My momma, Donna, is a beautiful fine artist as was her father, and his mother. My daddy, Jerry, is the front man for JB Walker and the Cheap Whiskey band, a pretty popular biker band. I get my ability to draw and paint from momma and my charisma and ability to work a crowd from daddy.
Art has always been my voice. I was a middle child that was desperate to try to find a way to stand apart from my siblings, an awkward tomboy never quite comfortable in their own skin, and a “wannabe” in every sense of the word. Drawing was the one thing I could do better than everybody around me and people took notice. They no longer looked at me because I was the awkward tomboy in the wheelchair, instead, they focused more on whether or not I would draw them.
At this point, I should probably back up and tell you a little more personal information about myself. I was born on June 24th 1979 and at 19 months I was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2. My older sister, Erica Yvonne, was diagnosed 10 months prior to my diagnosis and my baby brother, Gerald, who we call JB, soon followed in his diagnosis. My house was busy to say the least. I come from a very loving and giving family. My mom and dad have always done whatever they could to make sure that we were seen as their children and not children to be pity because they were disabled.
I used my ability to create to assist with fitting in socially and, inevitably, have made it my career. I received my BFA in drawing and painting from Kennesaw State University in December of 2005 and a MFA in the same concentration from Georgia State University in 2010. My life has been the evolving artist and, now, I use my art to advocate for the Disabled and Aging Community through Performance.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
A smooth road? I don’t think that there is such a thing as a smooth road. I don’t even know if I’d want the road to be smooth to be honest. I feel like the obstacles and challenges that I’ve had to face in my life have not been arbitrarily placed rather they’ve allowed me to find creative ways in which to overcome obstacles, to be my own advocate, to win my freedom and therefore, be able to enjoy my freedom. Believe it or not, my disability is not my biggest obstacle, society and the systematic barriers that still exist are more of an obstacle than being disabled. My works, both visual and performative, are microphones used to amplify the voices of the Disabled and Aging Community.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an interdisciplinary artist. A traditional artist concentrating and mostly drawing and painting, I now focus on performance art. Over the past two years I’ve been working on a performance series called REVERENCE:WE 3.
RW3 is designed to take place across the American landscape wherein I place myself as an object of reverence in locations where accessibility has not been established or there has been a failure to maintain accessibility under the Americans with Disability Act of 1990 prohibiting discrimination of people with disabilities. Establishments without accommodations are exclusionary and, therefore, are in violation. While dressed as a revenant warrior complete with mask and crown, I am joined by two empty wheelchair, one on my left and the other on my right. The vacant wheelchairs represent the objectification of an individual based on their disability but largely function as the embodiments of my sister and my brother who have passed and those who have fought and continue to fight for inclusion, equity, and equality in the Disabled and Aging Community.
I stay in position for 3 hours and audience members are encouraged to bring flowers and place them in the performance areas and/or in the seats of the vacant wheelchairs as a means of paying tribute to those who have fought or continue to fight or to recognize the systematic barriers still in place that prevent upward mobility and growth in the Disabled and Aging Community.
I have accomplished a lot in my creative 42 years but I would say that this work is career and life-defining. My goal is to give a voice to my community, one that will be heard because not being heard is not an option anymore. We have continually been overlooked, underrepresented, and continue to face systematic abuse and neglect. The work that I create now focuses on those issues wherein the anticipated outcome will be changed.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I feel like success truly is defined by how you feel at the end of every day. From sunup to sundown, do you feel like you did everything that you could to be a good person? Were you open and honest to the people you engaged with? Did you let your inner turmoil to outwardly and unfairly be projected onto another person? Did you allow those little moments of frustration to define your entire day? Lastly, and most importantly, did you try? I always tell my students it’s better to try and to fail than to never try because never trying doesn’t allow you to learn and only hinders you from growth. To define success I would say it is one’s ability to grow.
Pricing:
- Public Speaking Engagements: $500.00
- Artist Talks: $800.00
- Drawings: (starting price) $150.00
- Paintings: (starting price) $250.00
- Live Performance w/Artist Talk: $1,200.00
Contact Info:
- Email: J.E.Blinkhorn@gmail.com
- Website: https://jeblinkhorn.wixsite.com/mysite
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/wheelie_an_artist
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Jessica.e.blinkhorn
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC86oZbRje5fpgEly-5jb7zQ
Image Credits:
Nicky Knodle Lindsey Wiseman Cara Wiseman J Matt Thomas Anna Xiao
