About
Photo courtesy of Lindley Ashline, 2023
ARTIST STATEMENT
I create paintings, sculptures, and installations that aim to inspire conversations around childhood abuse, domestic violence, anti-fat bias, and homophobia. Based on my own lived experience, I am aware of my existence within a society that expects me to conform to heteronormativity and the unrealistic societal expectations of my body. My large-scale paintings, sculptures, and installations draw attention to what it means for my body to be presented in a gallery space typically reserved for societally attractive, thin, and non-disabled people, while I simultaneously learn to live with the echoes of traumatic childhood experiences and learn to settle into and love within a non-familial, found community.
My engagement with current social justice issues, such as anti-gay and anti-transgender legislation, the regulation of the rights of people with uteruses, and the Black Lives Matter movement, drives my studio work. Feminist theory teaches me to fight for myself, my children and students, and all of the women who exist within the white, cisgender, heteronormative patriarchy. This theory demands justice for all humans. In this way, my art seeks to raise awareness within my audience and encourage them to embark on their own process of understanding and healing.
BIO
Jessie Keating is an autistic, queer, and disabled artist based in Tacoma, Washington. In addition to a multi-disciplinary practice that ranges from painting and sculpture to metalwork and textiles, Keating has spent years teaching art to children and volunteering with regional ocean conservation and marine mammal rescue organizations. Keating’s studio practice is guided by a desire to empower those impacted by childhood abuse and trauma, anti-fat bias, domestic violence, and mental health issues, with an additional focus on feminist and queer theory. Pivotal to her research and community engagement is the belief that finding ways to facilitate accessibility to art is one means to bring about social justice.
Keating’s work has been featured as part of group and solo shows in the U.S. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington and a Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts.