Jessie Nickerson is a native of Cape Cod where her family settled in the early 1600s. In 2000, she received BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. During her junior year there she spent a semester in the Netherlands, attending the Reitweld Academy in Amsterdam. The Reitweld had an open approach to curriculum and encouraged its many international students to travel, granting Nickerson the freedom to visit museums and art galleries throughout Europe. Nickerson credits this experience with strengthening her love of painting. She became particularly interested in the highly stylized Jugendstil movement as well as the emotionalism of Figurative Expressionism.

Nickerson went on to attend Parsons School of Design, and graduated in 2003 with her MFA. She loved the excitement of New York but found herself increasingly homesick for the natural surroundings of the Cape. This longing for the ocean soon became reflected in her work, and her previously abstract-figurative paintings began to take on imagery reminiscent of marine life.

Nickerson’s work has always been strongly rooted in the subconscious. Today she creates surreal environments, which combine elements of observation, internal musings and fairytale iconography. She begins each piece with a preliminary idea of the colors that she wants to use and some reference materials (often old photographs or images from magazines). From there the work evolves organically, with some beginning images becoming obscured or eliminated, while new ones emerge. “I never know, when I begin a piece, what the final outcome will be. I need this element of surprise. If a piece is to rigidly planned I quickly lose interest.” Nickerson intentionally chooses titles that are vague in order to leave much of the interpretation up to the viewer. “Everyone has their own unique perception. I love it when people see something in my work that I did not.”

Nickerson’s paintings have been shown at galleries throughout the East Coast. For the past five years she has exhibited regularly and taught classes at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. She is currently on the painting faculty at the Walnut Hill School in Natick, MA, a private high school for students who are serious about pursuing a career in the arts.

She resides in Cotuit where the sea continues to provide her with inspiration.