November 2016 Cover Artist: Jessie Mott

 

Poetry magazine's November 2016 cover features Pegasus by Jessie Mott, which was commissioned for Pegasus & Mermaids, a group exhibition of work by Poetry cover artists (Mott's Janet appeared on January 2014). From the very start we knew we needed her for the show in a big way. We just didn't realize how big... Here's Mott talking about things from the beginning, with illustrations!

I was excited to be asked to participate in the Pegasus & Mermaids show because those mythical creatures are exactly what I want to be drawing basically all the time. For some reason I decided to make them very large—nearly 10 feet tall—even though most of my work is fairly small scale. For this, I spent a lot of time planning.

Here is an installation shot for scale (with Editorial Assistant Holly Amos!):

 

 

Most the time I approach drawing very spontaneously, without any sketches. The experience of making the Pegasus was very different because of this, and intimate. I began with the paper on the wall and then moved it onto the floor to make the intricate “magical butt” and the painting of the rest of its body. The paper was really heavy and the whole process became so physical. I approach everything intuitively. I like to take risks and make permanent marks. If there are mistakes, I have to problem-solve. Then again, given that all my creatures are fantastical, what are mistakes?

 

 

 

I began having dreams about animals when I was a child. Mostly they were nightmares. I was being attacked or eaten alive or I would witness some cruel act being done to prairie dogs and I’d try, in vain, to save them. I still have these kinds of dreams regularly.

 

 

Actually, last night I was dreaming that I was at a restaurant and the customers were encouraged to kill their own birds for dinner. I watched a man stabbing a pelican in the throat. It looked me in the eye before it happened and then there was an awful sound.

That sort of thing can really ruin one's day. In college I started writing the dreams down and making drawings inspired by them. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night and begin furiously writing some strange poetry. I don't know where it comes from but it feels like a twisted little gift.

 

 

 

The multiple breasts appeared one day. The first time was in graduate school, on an oil painting of a mermaid. Someone made a funny comment about it and I got shy and hid the painting. Now there is an army of creatures with them and they are very confrontational. I guess it’s like not enough mothering in the world to be satiated.

For as long as I can remember I would draw my figures in an isolated space with an empty background or color field. Portrait-like. But then the wall accumulates them and it becomes a conversation; all those little eyes staring at you. The addition and subtraction of works changes the dynamic.

 

 

What’s coming up? I’m part of a two-person show called Talisman with Em Kettner at Fernwey Gallery, opening November 4. I’ll be showing a few black and white drawings and some really bad little ceramic animals I made about four years ago when I was just learning how to work with clay and glaze. I love how bad they are, really, because once you learn a skill, it’s just never the same again.

 

 

 

I have a solo show at the Hyde Park Art Center opening January 22. Lots of new drawings, wall paintings, and the debut of a new collaborative animation with Steve Reinke. This will be the fourth in our series. I write a script, record the voices, and make the drawings. Steve creates a soundtrack and animates the drawings. I love writing the dialog for these because it’s so absurd and funny (to me, anyway) light and dark at the same time. I love Steve.

And we love Jessie Mott. Here is a little parting gift. My favorite, A Day for Cake and Accidents (2012)...

—Fred Sasaki, Art Director, Poetry magazine