JESSICA SCISCI * ARTIST AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I have been creating art since I was a little girl. Anything and everything was used as my canvas. I drew and painted on cut up cardboard boxes, paper bags, paper towels; anything suitable I could get my hands on. Family members seriously saved unusual materials for my art use. And, in turn, these became artwork Christmas or Birthday gifts for them. The cardboard back of a sketch pad turned into one of my favorite framed pieces that hangs in my home today.

From a very young age, my subject matter was more commonly landscape or seascape in nature than anything else. The horizon, where the round sun sits in the sky and meets the straight blue line of the ocean has always been an inspirational theme for me. One of my favorite pastimes growing up was family summer vacations at the beach. My parents exposed me to that artistic scene and it brought me to want to be near it more consistently than my hometown of Delmar, NY allows. So, I consciously chose a college near the ocean. I went off to the University of Rhode Island as a Biology/Pre-Med major because I was always fascinated by the human body. Of course I took art classes as my “extras” and after awhile decided to double major in Biology and Studio Art. Two years later, I transferred to the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY to study Art full time because deep down I know I will always be an Artist. There is something inside of me that becomes so energized when I am around art. I am very passionate about it and it is what I want to spend my life doing.

After graduating college with a Bachelor of Science degree in Studio Art, I drove across the country to live near the ocean in Santa Barbara, CA. I became an Art Instructor for an educationally based zoo camp program for children at the Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens. While there I had the fantastic opportunity to paint background murals for two new animal exhibits at the zoo. Family ultimately brought me back home to Delmar and it is where I reside today.

Since my time in California, I have held various jobs in art including teaching Kindergarten Art, custom framing and privately commissioned work for a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser and a commercial sign for a local restaurant. I have exhibited my paintings at Albany, NY’s annual Tulip Festival in Washington Park and Art On Lark, an annual street-wide art show. I have won Honorable Mention for two years at the Annual Villager’s Outdoor Art Show in Schenectady, NY’s historic Stockade neighborhood. For the month of June 2008 my artwork hung in the Bethlehem Public Library in Delmar, NY.

Currently, I continue to paint my landscapes and seascapes with mostly oil paints but have recently discovered a love for oil pastels. I also enjoy cooking, reading, traveling and playing with my favorites: my fiancé Ed and my four year old baby girl, a yellow Labrador Retriever named Abby.

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Sunset at Myrtle Beach