artist spotlight: Deziree Jordyn
A student of art, charged by a need to help people.
I’ve personally followed Deziree’s art in our days at West Orange High School together.
She currently attends Rutgers University, where she is declared as a major in Visual Arts, with a concentration in Painting. Deziree would like to graduate with an additional concentration of Sculpture, with a minor in Social Justice.
NOTE: ALL IMAGES INCLUDED IN THIS POST ARE PROPERTY OF DEZIREE JORDYN.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Deziree via FaceTime during the height of the first wave of COVID-19. We spoke a bit about life since we both attended West Orange High School and how her experience has been at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
“Painting is my first love. I have been making art for literally as long as I can remember.”
Like most children, Deziree painted and drew, using her mom’s “old-timey” craft-books. In middle school, she got into drawing fashion dresses and wedding dresses, down to very fine details.
“I still didn’t think much of it. It’s funny actually, because how I started taking art seriously was when I was selling brownies at West Orange High School and something happened with another student, and we couldn’t sell baked goods anymore. So I just started selling stickers. I just realized people were willing to pay for my work even on like a very minute level and that really just jump-started me. So, my junior year of high school is when I really started to take art seriously, and that’s why I found painting. Painting will forever by my first love. But then when I got to Mason Gross, I found sculpture. I don't love it as much as painting, but I’ve found different ways to implement aspects of sculpture into my paintings and into my concepts of installation.”
Deziree considers her artistic medium “anything it takes” to get her point across.
Her paintings convey a sense of raw emotion, and are truly captivating. Personally, I found her pieces with social justice undertones captured my attention and were hard to forget. Specifically, the pieces that she describes below.
“My portfolio application was concentrated on social justice. It was trying to exploit and challenge the stereotypes of women in society. There was this one piece that I had drawn a bra hanging, that was being burned, and I’d actually physically burned the paper.
The other piece that I can think of had more of an impact during my senior year.
After the Parkland shooting (Stoneman Douglas High School shooting) in February, me and a couple of friends ended up organizing a walkout, and there were a few. But, there was one walkout that I believe was the last one, and we reached out to different people in the community to come out. I presented this 8 foot by 4 foot piece that ended up getting permanently installed in West Orange High School. Basically, that piece is a commentary on gun reform.
To explain it: one side of the image was an American flag laying on the ground is a bunch of crumpled money on top of it, and the other side of the painting is an AK-47 made up of names. So, in this silhouette of an AK-47, there are about 500-600 names and those names are every student, by-stander, or teacher that was killed in school shootings from Columbine in 1999 to Parkland in 2018. Those names took me a few months to find, but that was all included in this piece.”
As a viewer of this piece, it is an understatement to claim that it moved me. It was the kind of piece that shook someone to their core. This emotive quality is what I think gives Deziree an incredibly unique quality as a visual artist. During our interview, I was really at a loss for words at her description. Listening back, I managed to say that it was “really cool” (not my most eloquent feedback, I know) when truly, it cut me so deeply as a former student who saw school shootings as what they are, heart wrenching and terrifying tragedies, but Deziree communicated that pain into a standing art piece.
“Mourning” by Deziree Jordyn, 30x30
“Botonical” by Deziree Jordyn, 46x36
“It really just makes me happy to help other people, and it’s much greater than getting a reward out of it or getting attention.
It’s just truly makes me feel better to help other people, so I believe that the whole social justice movement comes in because I still want to help people and pursue that yearning inside of myself that provides people with what they need, or at least contacts to people who may know how to help them.
I think that my art is my language, and I believe that art is a universal language, along with love and body language. Those are the universal languages. Even if you don’t speak the same language as the artist who made the work, you’re still able to look at it and have some internal reaction. I really just want to help everybody. Maybe not everybody speaks English, but at least if I’m showing an image, that’s more consumable by more people that just spoken word.”
And I truly agree with that. We live in such a globalized time, that breaking language barriers is incredibly important. Everyone can have a chance to communicate through art.
“I have an internal need to help people. It’s not even a want. It’s almost like if I don’t do it, not that I’ll drop dead, but I almost feel like I will. I just feel like there’s so much negativity in the world, and I say why would I sit here and contribute to that, knowing that I could do so much better.
So, the last things I’ve created have to do with COVID. I did a piece of a refrigerator laying on its side, that oozing this weird green goo and there’s just random pieces of bread, and food that’s scattered amongst the space of the fridge, and it looks very disheveled. I really wanted to heighten the idea of displacement that’s going on right now amongst a lot of us during this pandemic, whether it be displacement from a home, or school, or family.
One of the other paintings I made for this final was of a hotel, that had empty rooms in it and empty beds, yet there were bodies in the parking lot. I read this article that really disgusted me. They were having homeless people sleeping in parking lots, six feet apart, for social distancing, and it really irritated me. Thinking about all of these hotels and motels that could be beneficial to homeless people during this pandemic. Not all that can be done is being done right now, for any of us.”
This pandemic has displaced and hurt many, many, many of us, including art students like Deziree. I wondered aloud how the pandemic has impacted her education, how it’s been to paint, and especially how she’s been able to pursue her second concentration of Sculpture while being away from the studio.
“It’s one thing for the painting. But right before we left, I was making an 8 foot joint, basically. It was much taller than me and made out of plaster, and to be forced to go home and make cardboard sculptures that aren’t more than two feet high, it was very frustrating.
In terms of being away from the studio, overall it is a lot harder because even though I can still paint the way I would have painted in the studio, I’m not surrounded by my peers and I’m not in a class where my teacher can give me critiques throughout my work. When you’re forced to make half of your bedroom at home your studio, it gets very hard to get out of bed and motivate yourself to go to the other side of the room and start painting. You look at your bed like maybe I just wanna lay down all day so it has been difficult. Being home and staying motivated, and not having anyone to talk to about your work besides email or texts, it’s very much a different experience.”
She also spoke to her COVID-related financial troubles, including unemployment and housing, and the lack of response from universities in terms of refunds. Needless to say, the global pandemic has hit young artists in a very different way than other groups. While trying to achieve a balancing act throughout COVID, Deziree has also been working to promote herself and her work. She spoke to the fact that as an artist, self promotion never stops. She’s constantly working on branding and how to go about, but she’s focusing on creating video content of her art.
“The way I think about branding is different every day. One day I wake up and think if I spam Instagram, somebody will see it and want to buy my work.
I’ve had a website ever since I started taking art seriously, since junior year of high school.
But the main thing I do is really whenever I get the chance to talk about my work, I will. If somebody asks me about my work, you won’t be able to stop me. I‘ll show you my Instagram, I’ll show you my website, I will literally just show you practically everything that I’ve made.”
Tips for creators, in her own words
Don’t stop promoting yourself. Even if you’re feeling down about your work, just keep really telling people that you’re an artist. Sometimes you don’t always feel like an artist, but you just gotta tell everybody. That’s how I introduce myself. I’m like, my name is Deziree and I make art.
To compare is to negate.
Always practice self-affirmations, specifically about you and your work.
Don’t really take no for an answer.
“Candlelight” by Deziree Jordyn, 16x24
During my interviews, I love to ask creators what they do in their isolation. It’s truly a fascination of mine, because I personally take a lot of care to cultivate my personal space and what I do in it, what I fill my time with, and what I do when I’m alone. I’m the kind of person who thrives if I get to have alone-time, so I’m always curious to know what other artists do.
A rolling tray with lid by Dezire Higher, available in multiple colors. Click the image to shop.
I asked Deziree what she does when she’s alone, just chilling, not making art, and how she stays mentally sound and inspired.
“What do I do in isolation…I smoke a lot. It’s definitely something that helps me. Whether it’s creativeness or just being able to calm myself down to be able to process my own thoughts. Sometimes, I watch Netflix or I’ll sketch in my book, but if I had to say one thing that I do in isolation, that keeps me sane, it’s definitely to smoke.”
Since my conversation with Deziree, she’s launched a line of artful, herbal and meditative accessories called “Dezire Higher,” which aim to assist people in winding down from their day. Not only is this a beautiful line of products, designed by Deziree herself, but it serves a beautiful purpose.
We spoke a bit about workflow in general, another thing that fascinates me about artists.
“While you’re working in your physical aspect of sitting in front of your computer, typing, or editing photos, it’s really to get to that stream of consciousness when you’re aware that you’re making decisions, but you’re not overanalyzing them, you’re just kind of going, going, going, going. Boom, that’s a tip.”
There is definitely something magical about letting your art take over your mind, to just do what feels right.
A thought to carry: to compare is to negate.
“It’s something that goes beyond art. Even if you are the least creative person in all of the world, if you’re like a super scientist, and you’re comparing yourself to another person’s experiment. You know what I mean? To compare is to negate, which means if you are willing to put yourself in the position to compare, that means you’re putting yourself in the position saying that you’re not good at all, or that you’re not worthy at all.”
All in all, I’m truly grateful for the existence of Deziree Jordyn. The world has an artist amongst its ranks who has the power and insight to change how things are. It takes a really special person to be able to convey messages that many of us struggle to comprehend, emphasize with, and elaborate upon. Deziree just so happens to be able to do it through the communication of art, a universal language, a language of love.
“Untitled” by Deziree Jordyn, 16x24
a song recommendation from Deziree
“It’s a pop album from 1997 called Flying Away by Smoke City. The songs are half English, half French and it makes me want to dance in a very whimsical way. It’s really funky.”
Follow Deziree on Instagram, check out her shop, and her other paintings on her website.
We hope you enjoyed this & as always: create sustainably, with love ♡