Jaymee Harvey Willms Artist

The Navigator's was an exhibition featuring the work of Jenie Gao, Emily Arthur and myself. For the month of October, we took over Var Gallery and Studios. Below are some images of my own work, and the incredible work of these two women and a few paragraphs describing some ideas the show was centered around.   The Navigators – EXHIBITION STATEMENT / PRESS RELEASE What does it mean to be a navigator? First, we must ask, is it possible to lead from within the crowd, or to direct the course of a journey when someone else’s hands are at the wheel? If the answer is yes, then to be a good navigator, we need to understand that at all times, we deal with circumstances greater than our control and make decisions with less information than we would like. Yet we still must choose a direction to go and find ways to communicate what we know to others in order for them to listen and follow. The Navigators features artists, Jenie Gao, Jaymee Harvey Willms, and Em...

Moving to Wisconsin was a huge rupture in my making practice. I have had studio space available-but only hit conceptual, physical, and emotional walls when entering these spaces. Spaces that I myself had set up. Over the course of this two year journey I have made some really crappy stuff, and stared for countless hours at said really crappy stuff. Last month, I moved into a studio in the Marshall building in Milwaukee's third ward. It was been the kick in the ass that I needed. Paintings and sculptures have come to life once a again, and I couldn't be more excited. In this dead zone of making much has happened in my personal life, as well as the life I lead at work. Personal and public are deeply affected by politics, womanhood, and the patterning of everyday movements. Patterns and "traditions" change the way humans, specifically women, walk through life. In these paintings I have been studying my own habits, patterns, and traditions, and the way that I understa...

In February, I was privileged to receive a residency at Ronald Reagan Elementary, in New Berlin, WI. With Cindy Hollbrook and Mrs. Burg (RR's art teacher) we used found objects, recycled materials as well as plaster, clay, floral foam, and balsa foam to create abstract sculptures with all 700 students. It was exhausting and magical. Below you will find some photos of my favorite pieces and a short video chronicling our final art show!

I have been neglecting my blog for some time now- but please do not think this means I am not working! On the contrary, life has been busy.... super. busy. To ease the transition back into showing you my process, here is some work from a residency I began last year in February at the Cedarburg Cultural Center. This work was a first foray back into painting... Video interview to soon follow!

Here are a few more thesis work images, I am loving the documentation of these little critters.

Here is a small show that was up in Chatham New York at Stone House Properties. The wonderful Melissa Sarris has been working hard at bring art into the larger conversation of a smaller community. I was very excited to be a part of this conversation and discover new ways of working and showing. Inside  the  Wallpaper  is an installation exploring fantasy within domesticity. These objects are combinations of dollhouse furniture, ceramic clay, and paint reflect upon the dreams of a young girl. Each animal is altered in an aggressive and dramatic way- leaving them vulnerable and incapacitated. The dollhouse furniture repairs and simultaneously burdens each creature- pulling apart the narratives of childhood and the reality of adulthood.

Fairy tales, biblical stories, and folk narratives inform both my female identity and the conceptual underpinning of my sculpture. I insert personal biases, memories, hopes, and fears into my work in order to satirize and expose cultural assumptions about gender, sexuality, and power. To this end, I make my sculptural work from quotidian objects that reference the visual language of my late-twentieth century Midwestern childhood. Dollhouse furniture. A bedpost. China cabinet. I manipulate these found objects in order to question their original purpose and the narratives they remind me of and to confront my own ambivalence toward power and commodified desire. The implicit suggestion of a happy ending in everyday American experience is suggested in retirement ads, children’s toys and clothing, television shows and movies. Disney regularly comes out with new princesses and remakes the old, drawing in old and new audiences alike and recreates believable versions of “Once Upon A Time” that ...