My Process

Jamilla’s abstract and semi-abstract paintings are an expression of the moment through contemplation of the environment. Her time spent in places such as Egypt, Greece, Italy, and the American Southwest has shaped her aesthetic. Her work is particularly inspired by New Mexican land forms, and the passage of time and erosion on the earth , revealing different colors, exciting lines and beautiful raw textures which mark geological history. She loves any worn surface, particularly decayed organic material in all different stages of life and death. Her work seeks to accept a new vision of natural beauty as climate change transforms the earth rapidly. The planet is taking on this shape shifting creature that will force unbelievable consequences, but artists will reimagine the future and that should give us hope.

She uses a variety of media and techniques ranging from Oil and Wax to incorporating hand-made paper in her acrylic paintings. She begins her paintings with unconscious mark marking using graphite, acrylic markers, colored pencils, and paint, often applied with unconventional tools such as sticks, brushes on long poles, spatulas, and a variety of kitchen tools. She builds a deeply layered surface with paint and torn papers.

She reveals the painting’s history by scraping back layers of paint with any tool she can get her hands on, which includes incising the work with razor blades. Her subtractive mark making is influenced by ancient Puebloan Petroglyphs and Egyptian hieroglyphs that she has viewed in reverence, as well as deteriorating organic matter such as plants.

As she works her painting a structure will emerge, which she emphasizes with organic shapes torn from hand-made papers often colored with ink droppings. The edges of the layered shapes give fine shadows becoming lines which can disappear depending on the direction of the viewer. Then she adds mark making from oil sticks and crayons.

Her work is truly finished when she cannot add or subtract anything more to the surface. However, the connection between the viewer and the art work is what makes the piece complete. She finds the process of painting like a meditation as she gets lost in the application of her materials. The process is healing, often revealing inner, unspoken truths.

Jamilla hopes the paintings will bring joy and realization that this moment is all we really have.