Artist CV | Biography | Artist's Statement

Education, Exhibits, Commissions, Press, Memberships

Jesa Damora worked in architecture for many years. She recently resigned as Executive Director of the Hickory Consortium, a national non-profit specializing in sustainable building methods and technologies.

education

Harvard University , class of 1981-'86
Olympic Training Centers 1979-‘84
State University of New York at Purchase 1977-‘79
NY School of Visual Arts 1973-‘74
Wykeham Rise School 1972
Interlochen Arts Academy 1971
Greenwich Academy 1969-‘71
Whitby Montessori School , 1966-‘68
Bedford Rippowam School , 1959-'66, '68-‘69

one-person shows

2008 July-Aug Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston, MA
2008 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville, MA
2007 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville, MA
2007 April Macy’s ‘Bouquet of the Day’, windows exhibit, Boston, MA
2007 March New England Spring Flower Show, Boston, MA
2006 Jun Elise Mankes Gallery, Marblehead , MA
2006 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville , MA
2005 Sept ArtsUnion Open Studio, Somerville , MA
2003 Oct Moosewood Restaurant, Ithaca , NY
2002 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville , MA
2000 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville , MA
2001 Jan-Feb Paul Dietrich Gallery, Cambridge , MA
2001 Sept-Oct WGBH TV, Boston , MA
2000 Aug Somerville Community Access TV, Somerville , MA
1999 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville , MA
1962 Mar 18' long lily mural for exhibitor at New York Flower Show, NY

group shows

2007 May-July Tufts University Art Gallery Summer Invitational, Medford, MA
2006 Mar Elise Mankes Gallery, Marblehead , MA
2006 Mar-Apr Projekt30.com, publicly-juried on-line show
2005 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville , MA
2005 Jan Small Group Show (self-organized), Somerville , MA
2004 Dec Diane Boisvert Gallery, Brooklyn , NY
2004 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville , MA
2004 March Foglia Design, Somerville Small Group Show, Somerville , MA
2003 Oct C Duell Gallery, Small Group Show, Boston , MA
2003 May Somerville Open Studios, Somerville , MA
2003 Mar Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory, Alexandria VA ‘Avant-Garden'
2003 Feb C Duell Gallery Group Show, Boston , MA
1996 Sept Cambridge Art Association Fall Salon, Cambridge , MA
1995 Oct Cambridge Art Association ‘Technology Links', Cambridge , MA
1995 Sept Cambridge Art Association Fall Salon, Cambridge , MA

fundraisers and auctions

2007 Jan LynnArts Annual Auction, Lynn, MA
2007 Jan Gardenia House for Migrant Mothers, Washington DC
2006 Oct Mystic River Watershed Association, Needham , MA
2006 Jan Community Concerts of Greenwich , CT
2005 Nov Dana Farber/Mutual Funds against Cancer, Boston

public commissions

City of Somerville/Somerville Arts Council/Community Growing Center, outdoors installation, 2002 May-Jun

museum collections

Kinsey Institute Collection, Indiana: ‘Seedpod No.6’

competitions

1982 2nd place, UK National Architectural Competition for Milton Keynes Xscape Entertainment Complex: in association with Quintet Design and Ove Arup Associates, was lead designer and presentation designer/draftsman for 250K sf multipurpose entertainment complex suspended in tensegrity tent design, publicized in print and on East Anglia television.

publications

Zen Monster, art/poetry/fiction and subversive political commentary, NY, NY Volume 1, No.1 Winter, 2008
Parallax Press, CA pub. Four broadsides of poems by Thich Nhat Hanh, printed by Firefly Press, MA 1997-8

press

“Artist’s Boylston show reveals hidden worlds,” by Denise Taylor, The Boston Globe, July 24, 2008 (Click here to read the full article)
“Artist Specializes in Private Property,” by Mary Jo Palumbo, Boston Herald, May 14, 2004
“Jesa Damora's Corner Pocket Art,” by Ray Hainer, Boston's Weekly Dig, August 2, 2006
“‘Gardens’ at Mankes Studio,” staff, Marblehead Reporter, May 25, 2006

retailers

Massachusetts Horticultural Society: large and small prints

memberships

Citizens Housing and Planning Association, US Green Building Council, the Green Roundtable, Urban Land Institute, Congress for New Urbanism, Mystic View Task Force, New England Sustainable Energy Associates; Board Member of the Hickory Building Institute, Board Member of Andrew Jackson Building Laboratories; Somerville Open Studios; New York Botanical Garden; Somerville Garden Club; Massachusetts Horticultural Society; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Museum of Modern Art; The NY Museum of Sex; Cake NYC; Feminist Culture Club; Slow Food; Alliance Française; Societé pour Sauver le Patrimoine de l'Imprimerie Nationale; Coro Allegro (supporter).

Born 1954
Early childhood spent idyllically in Bedford Village , New York
Grew up in Mies van der Rohe house. Uninsulated, no privacy, leaked, but wonderful place
Climbed lots of trees

Montessori and private school education, graduated Bedford Rippowam, NY 1968
Drew a lot.
Painted 18' mural of orange lilies for exhibitor in New York Flower Show at age 8
Greenwich Academy in CT for a while, got in lots of trouble, won lots of arts awards
Left home at 16

Traveled by thumb around the USA , searching
Picked cherries, worked in laundry, hiked in forests
Interlochen Arts Academy briefly, got kicked out
Graduated Wykeham Rise 1972, won lots of arts awards

Settled, or maybe unsettled, in New York City
Attended School of Visual Arts for a while for textile design
Ran design and production end of a factory for textile conversion in lower Manhattan
Learned to sail
Climbed several large buildings while very stoned
Sang for a living at clubs, briefly
Wrote and illustrated chunks of Time-Life Books,
Then did scutwork and unacknowledged editorial work for the Village Voice
Moved in with my aunt in Mt. Kisco, NY; made peace temporarily with my parents
Rough framer for 3 tract houses for builder who called me Petunia, acquired awesome arms
State University of New York at Purchase 1976 -77, won more arts awards

Harvard University for 2 years, lived with fabulous family in Newton
Mismanaged college: aced left-brain stuff, flunked right-brain stuff: Asked to take time off
Almost got married
Cannon-fodder at various architecture firms to earn tuition
Apprenticed public relations while living at Edward Bernays' house in Cambridge for several years
Learned to cook, worked as caterer in Boston area, ran parties for 300
Moved to the UK

Worked illegally at pubs, architecture firms; traveled; struggled
Ran half-marathons, smoked 2 packs a day, drank heavily
Took 2nd place in UK national architectural design competition for huge entertainment complex, got on TV
Moved back to USA, wondering what this peripatetic life was adding up to

Managed many contractors for parents' architecture/photography/graphics firm, designed advertising
Learned to speed skate
Returned to Harvard intending to go on to architecture school
Worked for several architecture firms, losing conviction

Trained in short- and long-track speed skating at Olympic Training Centers
Graduated Harvard, class of '81 - '86

Competed at speed skating National Short Track Trials, became nationally ranked
Got into debt
Quit architecture

Got married, December 1989, to guy just right for me. Wow!
Seriously injured speed skating
Enjoying being married, cooking French and Moroccan feasts, traveling, sailing

Did 300 drawings of tulips in 1993 Jan. thru June
Decided this was a career?
Took job in construction supervision to support art career, which made it not one any more
Learned to trade commodities, lost all in August '98 market dump

Learned to row 8's and 4's. Trained for Boston Marathon, despite a year of accumulating illness.
My dear Aunt died the day I was supposed to run it
Started sitting zazen. Duh, considering my husband is a Buddhist priest
Got representation in Boston , MA gallery, which then closed

Participated in Somerville Open Studios, May, 1999. Got seriously ill, did nothing for 8 months
Construction supervision job transformed into marketing low-income green and sustainable building
Studio time carved out of late nights and times when I was supposed to be doing other things
Got representation in Brooklyn, NY gallery, which then closed

Still recuperating from illness in 2001. Why, Georgina , did you know illness can transform your life?
Travel all over the world for a year, following husband John sailing in the BT Global Challenge
Group shows, one-person shows
Appointed executive director of national sustainable building consortium
Got representation in Marblehead, MA gallery, which then closed

Had a decisive moment in front of a Dale Chihuly chandelier just shy of my 50th birthday
Quit job
Quit all distractions. Are major house renovations distractions?
Back pain. Hormonal problems. Glasses. Time to subscribe to Arizona Highways!
Went to Burning Man instead.

Am still one of the few people I know who will drive 300 miles for a good melon
Here we are

Since 1993 my work has focused on black and white pencil drawings of flowers and gardens on mylar. They are large, ranging from 3’x 5’ to 4’x12’. Using mylar is an outgrowth of many years spent drafting on it in architectural offices, and I am still in love with it for its receptive and forgiving surface and its ghostly translucence.

Frequently, I draw for the effect that occurs when the original is used in making sepia prints, also on mylar. In these prints, the image becomes either softer or more aggressive, acquires streaks and background textures and a rich luminosity. There is an antiquity to both drawings and prints, which rubs shoulders questioningly with the ultra-modernity of the mylar.

While I do not draw from photographs, my work is strongly influenced by photography and the photoseccessionists: Steichen, Stieglitz, Kuhn, Coburn. As a child I assisted my father, a famous architectural photographer with an extraordinary eye, whose love of black and white influenced my preference for monochromatic drawing. The way I use composition, tonality, and saturation, as well as depth of field, owe something to having learned about them through the viewfinder of his 8x10 camera. I may also use a tilted perspective plane, or a fixed focal length, or simulate the effect of filters. These encroachments on usual drawing conventions corrupt the viewer’s sensibilities just a little bit, like a tongue stud... This is in keeping with emotional climate of my drawings.

The flowers and intimate landscapes that I draw are lush and sensuous, sometimes menacing or uneasy, and occasionally feel submerged or situated in outer space. The drawings are often very dark, dense and highly worked. Actually, they are and are not about flowers. They turn aside a sort of complacency—that the world is basically tamed and civilized, the exemplar of which is the well-tended garden where no one expects to be threatened or disoriented. They undermine it by using these same flowers and gardens to reveal the heedless vitality of nature—our own natures included—and its chaotic, selfish force. They suggest that the order of nature is not according to our expectations, preferences, and myths, and that what we call awesome and beautiful is our occasional willingness to be upset by this mystery.

It has been said to me that the subject of flowers is not a challenging one. First of all, everyone does them. That must mean they’re boring—like sex? Flowers are the sophisticate’s horror, a Decorative Art: ‘botanicals’, sheet and china patterns, pretty cards from the MFA, coffee table books on the restored Giverny plantings. And Georgia O’Keefe had the last word on them, anyway. As a demur to this dominant and smug position, how could a new attempt not be challenging?