The Creative Genius Behind “Discipline and Passion”
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Jackie Reeves Jeffrey and Nancy Bilezikian, along with daughters Frida and Beatrice, the new owners of “Discipline and Passion.”
rt doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, something that painter Jackie Reeves counts in brush strokes. This year’s Pops by the Sea artist, Reeves spent several months in her Barnstable studio, drawing inspiration for her 2017 commemorative painting from a likely source – the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Listening to their music, Reeves channeled the orchestra’s sound into a rich palette of colors, lines, and shapes. It was a process of trial and error; on some days, she placed abstract images onto paper. On other days, it was more concrete as Reeves crafted scenes of musicians playing instruments. The final result is a stunning combination of the two, all wrapped up in the colorful, creative vision of one of the Cape’s most dazzling artists. Born and raised in Montreal, Reeves studied design art at Concordia University, graduating with a BFA in 1990. In 2012, she received her MFA in painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She arrived on Cape Cod in 1995 with her husband Bruce; the couple lives in Sandwich where they are raising three daughters. Reeves’s budding years were spent as a commercial artist with a focus on graphic design, illustration, and
mural painting for corporate, private and public spaces. Since Reeves received her MFA, her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the country, from Cape Cod to Vermont to Pennsylvania to Washington DC to North Carolina. She has been featured in numerous publications, including the Boston Globe, Art New England, and Artscope Magazine, which named her one of the “25 artists that have captured our imagination.” Reeves, who works out of Chalkboard Studio in Barnstable Village, uses drawing, painting, and collage to bring together figurative and abstract elements in her art. “I start my paintings abstractly and build up layers of thin paint, using methods that purposefully create unexpected results. By spilling, pouring, dragging, pressing, and dripping paint, I am forcing myself to let go of control and allow the nature of the medium take over,” she said. “It’s a dance between me and the paint, a series of steps involving letting loose and reining in. For me, this is a very exciting way to work because a blank canvas becomes a road trip to somewhere I have never been before, a one-time-only experience that stretches the limits of my imagination where anything can happen.”
SIGNED ARTIST PROOF POSTERS ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE
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Pops by the Sea 2017
