Jessica Brilli, painter
Why she loves to paint vintage subjects, favorite cars, and how disregarding art advice has resulted in some of her most exciting work.
Jessica’s Brilli’s paintings of swimming pools with diving boards and slides evoke vivid memories of my 1970s childhood in the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her paintings brought back the nostalgia of long summers when the most important thing was having a friend with a pool and being home for dinner by dusk. Jessica has captured the flatness and faded sun-bleached colors of my neighborhood of 1950s and 1960s ranch houses, of ubiquitous station wagons, and lots of concrete. Seeing her paintings made me feel as if she grew up down the street from me and lived in a house filled with then-modern furniture and hippie art.
Jessica exudes understated cool. If I started a band (I won’t, don’t worry, I say to anyone who has heard me sing or try to tune a guitar) I’d want her to be the lead singer and guitar player. We can recruit the other bandmembers in a future story.
Jessica grew up in Long Island, NY, and at eight years old knew she would be an artist. She studied art at the University of Rhode Island and for many years was a graphic designer by day and painter all other waking hours. More recently, she made the shift to full-time painter and life has never been better.
Your recent paintings are subjects based on family, donated, and acquired Kodachrome slides and photos of the past. What led you in this direction?
It was a natural progression from when I was painting vintage technology: typewriters, old radios, a sewing machine. I was ready to move on. I had a family photo that sparked that interest for me. I always liked the look of photography from 50-60 years ago in terms of the color, design, simplicity, the cars I was seeing. I was having trouble finding things in my current life that I wanted to paint. I’ve always loved the look of old photographs.
Where did the slides and old photos come from?
The most recent batch are from a guy in my neighborhood who has yard sales a few times a year. I think he buys storage lockers. A few weeks ago there was a whole crate of slides [smiles]. I couldn’t believe it! I bought all of them for $60. If I buy 500 slides, I only need to find one in the bunch that I like to make it worthwhile.
Do you ever worry people will try to dump all their old unwanted slides on you?
If you have slides, I’ll take them! It’s surprising to me that people want to get rid of that sort of thing.
You are sitting in a vintage chair. Is your house decorated in a similar style?
It’s a mix of mid-century modern and antique. This chair is from Radcliffe College. I worked at the Radcliffe Institute for many years doing graphic design work. When they renovated the building I worked in, I got this chair.
What is it about the subjects from the 60s and 70s that are a draw?
It’s intertwined with me and my family. My parents grew up in the 50s and 60s and my grandparents had a house in Nassau, Long Island that was similar to the suburban scenes I paint.
You paint a lot of cars. What kind of car do you drive?
I’ve been driving my 1984 533 BMW a lot. I love that car. The studio is 10 miles from where I live in Quincy [MA] so it’s the perfect daily drive for that car. We also have a Volvo V90 station wagon.
If money and reliability were not issues, what car would you want to drive?
A Porsche 911 from the 1970s.
If you were going to receive as a gift either a brand new loaded 2022 Chrysler Pacifica minivan or 1968 Ford Country Squire station wagon, which would you choose?
Oooh. Today I’d go with the minivan because it would fit really large paintings [laughs].
Based on your love of many things vintage, do you love to eat tv dinners?
I don’t.
Did you grow up on vintage food, like Jell-O?
Not so much. My mom was a stay-at-home mom during my early childhood, and she did a lot of cooking. We didn’t eat a lot of Campbell’s or Jell-O-based foods [laughs]. But we used to eat something called steak-umms. Do you know what those are? [laughs] Those were kind of vintagey food [Yes, those were really terrible, but maybe now they are ironic? The website is promoting “beef sheets,” which does not even pique my curiosity, and branded t-shirts and hoodies are also offered.]
Let’s talk about your painting. Your style seems like it’s somewhere in between photorealism and screen printing. How did you arrive at your style?
It’s important to me that the work looks like a painting. I never want to be photorealistic. Working as a graphic designer has also been very influential. That’s where my love of expanses of color comes from and large fields, the graphic quality of it.
How does your training as a graphic designer influence your painting style?
It’s made me better at developing compositions and at using as few elements as possible to get an idea across. In graphic design, that’s what I’ve always tried to do: Get an idea across without overdoing it or using too many elements. I like to do that with these paintings too. Take out things that are distracting or unimportant to the subject.
You use planes of colors rather than blends and transitions.
That also comes from working as a graphic designer and the influence from other designers/painters, such as Sol LeWitt and Alex Katz. I have an affinity for the color field.
Would you say you are more successful painting fast or slow?
I always prefer to have more time, but when I’m painting quickly, I’m using more intuition. Sometimes if I’m not thinking about it as much and just doing it—getting into what they call “flow”—the product can be better.
Did you get to a point where you had enough sales and shows to make that leap to being a full-time painter?
A few things led to it. I was full-time at the Radcliffe Institute, where I worked as a graphic designer. I did whatever they needed visually, designing posters, promotional materials, web graphics, invitations….
During the pandemic, I worked from home for two years and thought it would be hard to go back to office life after that. Then in 2021, I got a Pollock-Krasner grant, which was very helpful. It allowed me to establish this studio in Stoughton. Later in 2021, it seemed clear that the time had come to focus on painting full time.
Could you put a pin on a timeline when you felt like you were a legitimate professional?
One of the first times was when my work was featured on The Jealous Curator blog written by Danielle Krysa. I thought that she respects my work, so maybe I’m doing something right. Then the first time I had a solo show at the Kobalt Gallery in Provincetown, that was a big step. Getting the Pollock-Krasner grant was a good feeling too.
What the best and worst advice you’ve received as an artist?
The worst was that I should never use anybody else’s photographs to create work. That was bad advice for me.
Why is that? Conventional wisdom is that somebody else’s photograph captures their own artistic vision.
It has to do with the intentions that they had when they took the photo. I think of what I’m doing as a collaboration. It’s sort of like this project is with the person who took the photograph, and I’m resurrecting their image and bringing it back. A lot of these images I find are completely buried and I don’t think anyone would ever see them again. I look through so many images and slides until I find one that I really connect with.
What is it about an image that makes you think it could be a good one?
Color, composition. When it stops me in my tracks, that’s how I know I’m going to consider painting it.
What do you like better—the process of making a painting or getting to the point where you look at a painting and decide it’s done?
Both are really fun. What I really like most is starting paintings and finishing paintings. The middle part is sometimes not as fun [laughs].
What do you like about starting a painting?
It’s exciting and fresh. When you are in the middle of it and it doesn’t look like it’s finished yet and it doesn’t look like you just started it, and it ends up looking kind of shitty. So you have to push through that part.
You have many paintings in progress. What makes you go from one to another rather than working on one at a time?
Usually, I have a deadline and that’s what drives me to finish things. I have a lot of paintings in progress now and I’m trying to limit myself to only three or four because it can be overwhelming if I have 10.
What’s the largest canvas you’ve painted?
A few months ago, I finished a commission that was 40 inches wide by 90 inches tall. The subject was a vintage advertisement from the 1990s.
Who are the creative people you admire?
Hopper was one of the first artists I admired as a teenager. I loved his stark compositions and use of color. I admire Wayne Thiebaud, and I love the graphic quality of Georgia O’Keefe’s work. I also love the work of contemporary artists who are friends of mine: Christopher Burk, who does houses and suburban scenes, and Seonna Hong, who is a bit more abstract.
I’m also inspired by music and musicians. I listen to music when I’m painting, such as Land of Talk, Bruce Springsteen, John Coltrane, Aaron Copland, Aimee Mann, and Mariah Carey…too many to list.
Some people say good artists must suffer for their art. Do you believe that?
I think a lot of artists do suffer. It goes along with creativity. I’ve had difficulty with anxiety and depression, and I know a lot of artists have, but who doesn’t these days? But being a full-time artist and painter now, I feel happier than I ever have.
One of your paintings is on a book cover. Tell me about that.
Night Swimming is a painting of a pool at night with a diving board. Echo Books wanted to use it for the cover of “Leave the World Behind” by Rumaan Alam and now Netflix is making it into a movie with Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali. I’m hoping maybe they use the image for the movie. I’m curious if my painting influenced any of the visuals.
Lightning-round questions (People often bond over food and art, and here are quick questions about both)
Favorite breakfast. Waffles with fresh fruit or ice cream—any flavor ice cream that’s not rum raisin.
Table syrup or real maple syrup on the waffles? I’ll go either way because I grew up with the fake syrup so I don’t mind it [laughs] but I like real maple syrup too.
Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks? Dunkin.
If tomorrow was your birthday and I was going to bake you a cake, what kind of cake should I bake for you? Almond cake or strawberry shortcake.
What’s the most memorable meal you’ve ever had? It was in Lucca, Italy, at a friend’s parents’ house. We were sitting outside by a pool on a beautiful night. They served delicious fresh food—good Italian meats, cheese, and fresh fruits.
You are hosting a dinner party and you get to invite six people living or dead. Who is coming? Wayne Thiebaud, David Bowie, Karen Kilgariff—she hosts a podcast and she would be fun to hang out with, Sarah Silverman, Bruce Springsteen, and Janis Joplin.
What’s your favorite piece of art that you own? I have an embroidered portrait of my house done by Stephanie K Clark. It’s very special to me.
Most captivating museum visit. I love the Whitney, but when I had my show in California I went to the Getty Museum for the first time and that was incredible. I went there with Lia Skidmore, the owner of Skidmore Contemporary and she is an art historian and a great person to be there with. She spends almost every Sunday there.
Palate & Palette menu for Jessica Brilli
Here’s what I would make if Jessica and her husband came over to dinner, which they are invited to do. They both love 1980s music, and he plays in a 1980s cover band, so this dinner features recipes from the bible of 1980s cuisine, The Silver Palate Cookbook:
Salad of iceberg lettuce with garlic anchovy dressing
Chicken Marbella
Carrot cake
Where to find Jessica Brilli (and you should!)
I love the idea of going through old slides to find imagery to paint! And just think how many unwanted slides are out there.
There's subtlety to the work that hasn't been discussed. I don't even think the artist herself realizes what it is.