WASHINGTON — Like most artists, Jesse Higman has negotiated the difficult demands of a career as a professional painter.
But the difficult path to success wasn’t Higman’s only obstacle: When he was 15, Higman was mostly paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident. Though he has control over his arms, wrists and hands, his fingers remain immobile. The intricate drawings he created and sprawling paintings on display in this Smithsonian were all created in spite of his limitations and inspired by his adaptations..
Higman’s work is being featured as a part of the VSA International Arts Festival – the worlds’ largest collection of works by artists with disabilities. But for Higman, his limitations aren’t what makes his art — disability is just one element of his reality.
“I don’t spend a lot of time expressing myself about my disability,” he said. “It’s not that interesting to me. It’s just the situation I’m in.”
However he is the first to admit that his physical limitations helped drive him to the swirling, ethereal designs he creates.
Though he began his artistic career drawing intricate images on leather jackets for Seattle-area rock bands ranging from Soundgarden and Alice in Chains to Heart, for the past 10 years he has been using a system of weighted wine bottles, strings and an adjustable platform to guide poured paint across a canvas.
The apparatus for creating the paintings is a work of art in itself. In fact, the precisely engineered system is on display across from his work in the S. Dillon Ripley International Gallery on the National Mall in Washington.
“When I got a big studio I started to experiment with what movement was all about for me,” he said. “… I’m so disabled that maybe I have a need to feel some kind of movement. So I started to pour things and watch how they flow and dropped the pencil and brush and pen all together. I really got a lot out of watching things happen and sort of seeing a miracle occur in front of me.”
Though he says only about one in every five painting turns out a success, the process of interacting with the natural flow of paint and the vitality of the work makes each product worthwhile.
“It is much more alive to me,” he said. “It gave me that kind of satisfaction I was always envious of musicians for having, such a live medium. It wasn’t the strategy I was using before as a graphic artist, illustrating or painting the hell out of something to make it do what I wanted it to do. (Now) I got textures and things happening that I couldn’t have planned.”
Higman’s work is among many large-scale and 3-D works in this year’s VSA festival.
“What I find particularly interesting as the director of visual arts is that there are a lot of artists with disabilities now that are going beyond the picture plane,” said Stephanie Moore, director of visual arts for VSA. “Not only are the artists breaking those traditional boundaries but we’ve put into play a lot of sensory experience. So the visitor with any type of any type of ability could come in and have the same type of experience.”
Though Higman won’t be demonstrating how he creates paintings while his work is on display at the Smithsonian, visitors can watch a video of him working with the canvas and pouring paint. Close, intimate shots show the texture and flow of the paint as the work is created and give the viewer a chance to go inside his artistic process.
Higman was elated the first time he entered the Ripley gallery and saw his work on display.
“This show is an honor,” he said. ”To be brought here and to have something put in front of people. I’m just starting to understand the words, the language of disability. I feel it’s the right place to be but I try not to expect too much. It’s more fun that way.”
The main VSA festival ran from June 6-12 in Washington, but Higman’s work will be on display in the Ripley International Gallery until Aug. 29. For more information on Jesse Higman and his work visit www.jessehigman.com.