Jessica Lee Ives

Jessica Lee Ives Biography

Jessica Lee Ives (b. 1980) uses paint to explore and experience her adventure filled relationship with the landscape of Maine, her home state, and beyond. Ives paints out of love—love for the world, and for the capacity of humans to know the world through movement, recreation, and adventure. Kinesthetic intelligence and imagination form the foundation of her personal and artistic life. Ives is astounded by how a small brush stroke can capture a large body moving through water, and how these actions describe the world’s beauty.

The works are like free verse, expressive yet disciplined, and always based on places where Ives has spent time. — Carl Little, “Artist of the Outdoors,” Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors

[Jessica’s paintings] reveal her intense, personal engagement with the complex, often mysterious, act of seeing. — Suzette McAvoy, “The Canvas,” Maine Home+Design

Jessica is a loose, fluid painter with a clean, keen sense of color and movement. — Bob Keyes, “Artist at Work (and Play),” The Portland Press Herald

Ives received her BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art. She was named one of the Top Ten College Women of 2003 by Glamour Magazine. Ives was awarded the Clark Foundation Fellowship for her work as an artist-in-residence at Ground Zero. She used the fellowship to pursue a master’s degree at New York University, combining work in the fields of art, religion, and public service.

Ives is a contributor at Happier Outside, The American Guide, and is editor and curator of The Maine, an online publication devoted to “an artful dialogue about the wonders of the state—and the state of wonder.”

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