Each year, I take stock of my year in the last month before my birthday. Beyond the seemingly never-ending pandemic, the continued social isolation, teaching without seeing my colleagues and students, and pushing myself to learn exciting new, soul-nourishing skills, it's been a year of the heart, for better or for worse. I've learned a lot about how my poor heart keeps beating--and what it beats for. I'll be interested to see which side of the card is up as 44 starts in mid-November.
​
"The 43rd Year (Queen of Hearts)" Jessica Boehman, watercolor and digital. 2021.

Really been enjoying practicing these portraits in a different style than my usual.  This one was a commission from my friend and colleague, Dominique, as a gift to her friend.

"Anna at a Reading" watercolor and digital.

I had the pleasure of being invited to see a live performance the other night in Park Slope by a new friend and percussionist who plays washboard, cajòn, the spoons, and guitar. I drew while at the gig, but I wasn't wearing my glasses, and my sketches were a bit...abstracted, to say the least! As a thank you, I drew this sketch of him playing a traditional washboard. After the gig, he told me that when performing in Brazil, his band would play old movies of the Mississippi Delta region in the background to match their style of music. So, I tried to mimic that effect by inserting this public domain nitrate negative image by photographer Marion Post Wolcott (d. 1990) of the King and Anderson Plantation in the Mississippi Delta.

(The moral of the story is: if you invite me to your gig, I'm gonna draw you.)

I also got to play the washboard and it was as fun as you'd expect. I had, in effect, my first jam, when a guitarist and a whistler joined in!
​
"Leo in Black and White" Jessica Boehman, digital drawing, watercolor, and borrowed photograph.

Had the pleasure of seeing an old friend perform at a Jazz festival in my hometown.

"Olivia Leading the Jam", Jessica Boehman, digital and watercolor, 2021

"No Accounting for Dreams" 2021, digital and watercolor sketch.

I've reworked an old drawing to show how I'm feeling in the soon-to-be-post-pandemic world (I do hope).
1. "Hope" colored pencil, pencil, gouache, and digital

Buy a print here.

Jessica Boehman, "Tom at a Gig" watercolor and digital, 2021. 

​A thank you for a friend and colleague.

I recently did some work with my brother, Joshua Boehman, on a project that fell through, but I had a lot of fun experimenting with watercolor and with working with a professional letterer. I'd like to share some of the drawings I made in watercolor collage with digital drawing. (Awesome lettering by Nate Pride--thanks, Nate!--you are truly outstanding and it was such a pleasure to work with you.)

Print of the interior room, "Safe and Warm", available here.