Jessica Craig is a figurative artist who explores the depths of people’s psychic underpinnings, and the psychological intricacies of relationship. The human figure is often used as a symbol, along with other objects to tell a story. The figures are often androgenous, so the story told increases in subtlety and complexity. Besides the symbolic references, the composition elaborates on the unfolding drama.

In “Exhale, Inspire," two androgenous figures are on opposite sides of the canvas with an inflated balloon between them. Both figures look out directly at the viewer. The figure on the right already has a deflated balloon, and is poised to pop the balloon of the other figure. The balloon seems to be used as a metric that measures the vicissitudes, turbulence, acceptance, and rejection inherent in the relationship. The balloon might also allude to the projections and illusions we often have in relationships that distort a more balanced reality. I like the title “Exhale, Inhale” because it directs us to yet other interpretations. It could mean taking that deep breath to come into full capacity of “self”, allowing one to create other “connections” to other realities.  This seems to fit with Craig’s approach of repurposing and reinvention, not only of things but “self. Of course interpretation is personal, but there's enough symbolic markers here to come to some general consensus.

“Deflated Devotion” seems to be a scenario of “truth telling”. The genders are explicitly defined here. Both figures from the shoulders up fill the whole canvas. The woman standing behind the man looking directly at the viewer is holding a deflated balloon. The man, whose gaze is turned aside, away from the viewer, has not only been handed a deflated balloon, but he is composed of deflated balloons. Craig often works with mixed media, and in this case, real balloons. The deflated balloons seem to point to an incontrovertible “truth”, It is over. Whether he is the symbol and repository of all other rejected suitors, or the deflated balloons are remnants of his shortcomings, which has ultimately led to his rejection. Being able to play with different interpretations not only adds powerful subtlety to Craig’s work, but also a valued accessibility.

 Another dramatic painting is called “Exhausto." It is a dark realistic rendering of a white collar worker, slumped over in his office chair. There is a prominent drip of paint, running from the chair to the bottom of the painting. The office worker, a man, is centered, and painted with little detail, a monolithic mass surrounded by the white of the canvas. There is nothing personal in the portrayal. It is difficult not to see this as referencing something iconic, something flayed and sacrificial, in the tradition of religious painting. I can even see this as a commentary, or a condemnation that is endemic to corporate life. The painting is powerful in its simplicity.

What I find refreshing about Jessica Craig’s work, is that one can interpret her work visually. Her symbols and compositions are not so overly conceptualized or esoteric, that one cannot interpret them. What she also doesn't do is over politicize her work, and give it grandiose generalities. I find that refreshing and honest.