RECONNECTING OUR COMMUNITY THROUGH A SHARED LOVE OF THE ARTS
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Shadow Ashes by Jessie Fleury Charcoal on Canvas On display in the Deo Gallery from August – September 2026 You
This work explores the contradictions within emotional experience, particularly as they relate to femininity and the female body. Through body-based mark making, I create images that feel both visceral and meditative, balancing vulnerability and strength, rage and peace, intimacy and detachment.
Created in response to the current political and cultural climate surrounding bodily autonomy and women’s rights, these works embody both emotional and physical resistance.
Using her own body as a tool, she poured oil onto her skin and moved across the canvas before brushing charcoal powder over the surface to reveal the traces left behind. The resulting marks become raw records of movement, contact, and lived experience.
By transforming her body into a mark-making instrument, the process becomes both performative and cathartic, a way of reclaiming the body while exploring vulnerability, power, and embodiment.
By Amelia Pruiett
By Adyson Guidebeck
Marquette Chamber of Commerce
