Meet New Jersey-based Artist Jessica Puma
Jessica Puma is a painter and artist based in Merchantville, NJ. You can learn more about her on her website and on Instagram.
CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION: Where are you from originally, and what brought you to your current city?
JESSICA PUMA: I am born and raised in Philadelphia but my husband and I bought a home just across the bridge in an old Victorian-style town in NJ when our son was 2 years old. We were able to combine my painting studio with his music studio and have some green space to raise our family. We have been here for 12 years now, making paintings, making music and growing our family.
How do understand your vocation as a Catholic artist?
I love this question because I ask myself and God this the time, too. When I was 6 years old, the very first thing I wanted to be was a saint. Hilarious, yes. Then I learned that I could not really "be" this, so I decided to be myself, an artist who loves God. Drawing and painting are the finest, most uplifting and challenging activities for my mind, body and soul—truly. I knew this from age 5 or 6; definitely by the time I was in school and looking at all the renaissance paintings that were teaching me about God. I suppose the two—beauty and God—were sort of married for me from the start. Being an artist is a sort of kiss or high-five from God. It is the most ridiculous thing also, Here I am, making marks and moving color around to create some arrangement that is pleasing and whole and necessary. Essentially, I am doing my best to give back to God what He has given to me, whether though observation, working from an image I had in a dream or working out a struggle that He has allowed into my life. One way or the other, through my work, I seek to return to God what He has revealed to me. That is why I say it is ridiculous. How do you give the author of beauty something beautiful? It is ridiculously fun though and that is why no other experience or way to spend my time feels better than painting or drawing. Always has been and I imagine that it always will be.
My mission as an artist is something that I am praying about and have been praying about for a long while. It seems to change through the years. To help support my family, I teach art and that I know is a vocation. At this time, I am exploring how to bring my work into a wider audience of faithful people, Catholic and Christian alike. I want to serve people by helping to strengthen their faith though my paintings and drawings. I want them to have daily experiences of their faith through the pictures I make. If a picture that I made resonates with a person and brings their faith into focus, I want them to have it.
The relationship of the viewer and the image is a special one. To make images that people live with that strengthens their faith daily, that is what I want. This is what I am asking God to help me do, if that is what He wants, that is.
Where have you found support in the Church for your vocation as an artist?
I think it is because I was raised in a Roman Catholic household that my love of art was so firmly planted. I grew up around copies—good copies—of Lippis, Leonardos, Canalettos and Van Goghs. In school, I looked at these images to learn about the mysteries of our faith and this friend I had, Jesus. I’ve always loved how the church used beauty as an effective teaching tool since its inception. For me, being an artist has never been separate from being a member of the faith. The members of my own family were the first in the church to support my art—my mother, most specifically. Mom, a super woman of faith, called it first, knowing that I am an artist, even as I majored in other subjects in college, trying to position myself for an easier and more lucrative living. She knew that I was her painter and she encouraged me always. "Always be yourself," she said. She was my biggest support in the Church.
How can the Church be more welcoming to artists?
The Church can be more welcoming to artists by simply patronizing more artists and exhibiting the works of Catholic artists. There is an absolute famine for beauty in the world today and I think it is making people really depressed. Just being in my church, St. Peter's lifts me when I look at the art from floor to ceiling. The patron of the arts is as important as the artists! Where would we be were it not for Julius, Leo, Paul VI and all the popes who made it their mission to showcase art for the general public. God only knows how many hearts have been turned towards our faith through the images and objects created by the hands of artists. Church leaders, please show more Catholic artists in your halls and during your celebrations!
How can the artistic world be more welcoming to artists of faith?
In my opinion, the secular art world can be quite cold. I think this is because, in general, their interests and concerns are not about submitting to a "higher power," to use the secular term. Most artists striving within that market are not concerned with matters of the true Spirit of God that is Jesus Christ in the world. Their concerns appear self-aggrandizing and in many cases moved by political pretense or power. While the work of Catholic artists may not always feature God literally in their work, I feel that even the suggestion of God would not be met with welcome or curiosity.
The question how can the art world be more welcoming to artists of faith is a tough one to answer. The art world feels more and more in love with itself today than with elevating an understanding or providing a space to contemplate the divine. Perhaps we need to take a greater role as artists and showcase our work for the world. Perhaps we need to enter that world and let people of faith know that we are here, working.
What is your daily spiritual practice?
On the days that I am not teaching during the AM, I get to morning Mass. I love starting that way because I am set up for the long haul. If I am not able to be part of the mass, it is Relevant Radio for me. Sometimes the rosary in the morning, sometimes in bits and pieces during my teaching day and sometimes in the evening during my work at home. I love to read, so if some scripture is not part of the day, I love opening a book. I am rereading The Screwtape Letters and goodness that book always gives me perspective on how I am living my life.
Describe a recent day in which you were most completely living out your vocation as an artist.
Any day that I can begin by giving my kids a good breakfast, getting to 9am Mass and coming home to a hot cup of tea and a few hours in my studio is the most stunningly fulfilling day. Painting brings me joy and brings me into focus. It is certainly not easy, making a painting, but during that act, that practice, I can move through my thoughts with my hand on the brush, my eyes on the color and I find meaning in the movement. Living as an artist, a healthy mother and wife and a loving, humble artist is the greatest wish and dream I can imagine.