Jacqueline Watts

My passion as an artist comes from a life-long desire to create. Growing up with a parent in the military, I was consistently moving around from one place to the next, all the while collecting shapes, places and colors to put in my back pocket and one day use. I was always a painter but started to expand my idea of what could and couldn't be used as art in high school and continued until I finally found my material of choice while in college doing a project made of scrap textiles, including leather and other recycled materials. Years later, in 2018, I started my embarkment as an artist experimenting with different mediums and textiles that slowly evolved into my primary use of leather today. Currently, I live in Memphis, Tennessee with my husband, Alan, and our child, Arrison. When I'm not in the studio, we are often found enjoying local parks, taking nature walks led by our little one. Inspired by the landscapes I grew up seeing and my travels, I soak in my surroundings and then illustrate them in my own way through collages. I am always mesmerized with the way the calming colors and soft layered textures of my pieces can speak to others without using words. A little leather on a wooden panel creates a shared experience between you, the viewer, and me, the artist. This connection brings me such joy and compels me to create the way I see the world: full of color and unsuspecting textures.