Design Research, Artistic Exploration, and All That Jazz!
Breast Cancer Kaleidoscope
Digital Art | TweetBlessed project
Folk Tale Illustration Series
Digital Art
Design On A Mission
Life Action Videos & Research Poster
Abuse Awareness Poster
Analysis of Hedonic Elements
Turning 30 Reflection
Animated Glitch Art | TweetBlessed project
Food Blessings
Digital Art | TweetBlessed project
McWherter Library | University of Memphis
Way Finding System
Fruit Pattern
Illustration
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Interface Design
AIGA Christmas Card Winner
Illustration
This Is The Day
Digital Art
MFA Design Thesis
Animations and Research Paper
Becoming Mama
Roto Scope Style
Becoming Mama
Animation and Digital Art
Let's Work Together
Email directly at jessa@creativspark.com
Breast Cancer Kaleidoscope Art
Part of the TweetBlessed project
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In the Twitter world the pair of phrases #blessed and #breastcancer appeared together in more than 25 tweets between October 1, 2013 and October 22, 2013.The #breastcancer hashtag appeared without #blessed over 1100 times during this same time period. Twitter users were feeling blessed to be a survivor, know a survivor or be able to donate to research and spread awareness. These tweets were the inspiration behind the four artworks. Womanly objects such as jewels, pearls, ballet flats, and beach hats were photographed and placed alongside of pink ribbons and breast cancer awareness products.
- Featured in 2 gallery exhibitions in 2014.
- Read more TweetBlessed.com
- Buy items with these prints at society6.com
Folk Tale Illustration Series
Shown: (1) Little Red Riding Hood and (2) Hansel and Gretel
Operation Wolf
Little Red In Bed
Where Is Little Red?
Hansel and Gretel in Candyland
Hansel and Gretel Lost in the Woods
Fool The Witch
These pieces approach the same subject from various illustration styles and concepts.
Pieces Featured in 2010 Arkansas State University Faculty Show, 2014 Greenville College Faculty Show, and 2009 Northwest Mississippi Community College Graduate Student Exhibition. They were also sold at the Arkansas State University Lifeline to Art event. Operation Illustration was exhibited in the International Digital Media & Arts Association Conference IDEAS Exhibition at Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah Georgia in 2011.
Design on a Mission
Design Research Poster & Two Live Action Videos
The research poster showcased the methods, results, data, and future plans that came out of my experience taking Greenville College Digital Media students on a trip to Guatemala in 2011. One goal of the poster is to encourage other design professors to set up off campus experiences in which their students are using their skills for a good cause and learning about another culture.
Presented this poster at the 2013 AIGA Head, Heart and Hand Conference in Minneapolis, MN.
May 2011 Guatemala Video
Greenville - IVCanada 2011 from SI Guatemala on Vimeo.
January 2014 Nicaragua Video
Greenville College in Nicaragua, January 2014 from Jessa Wilcoxen on Vimeo.
In May of 2011 and January of 2014 I took Greenville College students to Guatemala and Nicarague for a mission trip. While the education majors, biology majors etc. worked in schools and medical clinics the Digital Media students and I created marketing and design materials for the non profit, Students Internation. One media element that was created on both trips was a large video that captured the work that the students were doing on all the ministry sites. Smaller versions of each video were later created for fundraising and awareness tools.
Analysis of Hedonic Elements
Custom "Abuse Awareness" poster created for the study
Hedonic elments such as synedoche, unity, index, and scale are identified and analyzed in this piece.
Turning 30
And Animated Glitch Art Reflection, part of the TweetBlessed project
No matter how self assured I think I am, as I prepared to become another decade older I found myself focusing on unreached goals and the supposedly end of my “glory days.” But inspite of this, I was blessed to be entering my 30th decade.
While many glitch artists rely on software or websites to mash their code, I relied on my own coding knowledge to create the visual hacks shown in the 127 animated frames. In remixing the aesthetics, I sought to stumble upon design principles such as repetition, color contrast, hierarchy, and composition in each glitched frame.
Exhibited in the Glitch Art gallery show on Greenville College’s campus, on TweetBlessed.com, and in the Bock Museum.
Selected Frames
- Learn more abou this project onTweetBlessed
Food Blessings
Shown: (1) Coffee Blessings Art and (2) Pie Blessings Art, part of the TweetBlessed project.
Coffee Blessings
According to the world of Twitter, coffee is a serious blessing. During a one week time period of July, 2014 there were 254 tweets with the words “coffee” and “#blessed”. Some people celebrate coffee for the way it encourages one to pause and enjoy their surroundings or loved ones. Some use coffee as mediation device aiding in their study of God’s word and yet others simply celebrate coffee for what it is, a tasty cup of caffeine. I’m not sure if the beverage itself is a blessing, but in this fast paced world any mostly harmless tool that helps us revel in the moment is worth rejoicing.
Pie Blessings
During November of 2013, I considered what I was thankful for. My spouse, family, health, and job were among my first thoughts. I viewed the #blessed Twitter stream during the few days surrounding Thanksgiving expecting to see many tweets about similar blessings. While I did see some of these blessings tweeted I was surprised to see dozens of tweets about pie. Pie has been around in some form for thousands of years and it is no secret that Americans love their pie. For many of us, seeing a pie brings to mind family gatherings and happy times. So I thought to myself, is pie a blessing?
- Read More and see the tweets about Coffee Blessings Project on TweetBlessed-Coffee
- Read More and see the tweets about Pie Blessings Project on TweetBlessed-Pie
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Palliative Care Icon
Alternate Concepts Also Displayed
This logo was created for the Palliative Care unit at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The logo was intended to be used to represent palliative care in hospitals across the country. The client specifically requested that a tree and sunrise was included to represent hope.
McWherter Library | University of Memphis
Way Finding System Exploration
A series of surveys were conducted on students to help diagnose problems with the current way finding system. Discoveries included: lack of reconizeable icons, small signage, and no accessible maps. Each of these elements were addressed in the proposed redesign including new signage, and interactive display.
Custom Pattern
Inspired for the Snapple Brand
Flat graphics and a bright color palette were utilized in this pattern to help command attention and add visual interest.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Interface
As a design research assistant in the University of Memphis' Center For Multimedia Arts I worked on an interdisciplinary team to design an interface for a decision making handheld device to help terminally ill children voice their opinion on how they would like to spend their last few months of life. I created a large potion of the focus group materials for children ages 9 - 11. Four possible designs were used in the focus group and grant application. The black figures represent where a character would go if the children in the focus group thought a character should be in the design. The larger design was designed after analyzing the focus group data.
AIGA Christmas Card Contest
Merit Winner
The theme was Joy to the World', 'The lyrics from the song were used as inspiration for the illustration. Winter themed colors were used instead of red and green. The patterns in the piece also help reinforce the winter look.
This is the Day
This design features an inspirational lake landscape with the phrase "This is the Day". The phrase comes from Christian hymn with the popular chorus:
This is the day, this is the day.
That the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice, we will rejoice,
And be glad in it, and be glad in it.
This is the day that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day, this is the day
That the Lord has made.
The graphics include a modern triangle vector pattern and the colors are blue, purple pink, cream, yellow and grey.
- Buy This Print on
2009 M.F.A. Design Thesis
This thesis research involves creating a prototype for a website that will house design researcher's work and have the tools to create a dialogue about the research. A proper venue hosting design research could assist the design community in expanding upon current design research, in becoming more recognized as a research area, and in helping researchers, in particular graduate students, avoid repeating the same research. Also a website that allows access to design research and promotes discussion among designers will create a design community that is more educated and more socially connected. Prototypes are animated in After Effects.
Becoming Mama
Becoming a mama wasn’t easy for me. This piece represents the emotional journey through the trials of the infertility and later the trials of the adoption process. There were multiple times that I had to brace myself for the train to run me over. Then another day would begin and if I really wanted to be a mama the only thing I could do was pray and then get back on the train. The piece ends with my oldest son’s voice inviting me to play with him. Those words are words that I longed to hear for years. I am now blessed through adoption to be the mother of two boys. The animation was created by painting and drawing frame by frame the scene I wished to create in After Effects. The end result is similar to a traditional roto scope animation.
View the animation
Pandemic Hope
Since March 2020, I often felt like the thin paper ship I was on was sinking quickly as every normal aspect of my daily routine was changed. When vaccines were beginning to be approved in 2021, I starter to feel like there was a light at the end of this mess. There are three print pieces 1) Tapestry of Evil, 2) Work Today and 3) Pandemic Hope. I continue to study kaleidoscope visual techniques in both animation and print form. Like the pandemic, there is a sense of giving up some control when you use these digital tools. Tapestry of Evil is entirely built from the COVID 19 virus photo. Work Today has a computer surrounded by masks. Pandemic Hope is a still of a scene from the animation where there are syringes pointing inward toward the COVID 19 virus. The animation is also titled Pandemic Hope
View the animation
