International artist and jewelry designer Jessica Speckhard speaks about her move to Northern Virginia and her new art studio in McLean.
Jessica Speckhard is definitely not an artist to stay put in one place. She grew up in Northern Virginia, but because of her father’s career in the U.S. government, she was given the opportunity to live in Europe. While there, she visited places like Greece, where she worked with French artist Louis Bourgeois. In 2009, she had her first solo show in Kolonaki, Greece, and just the next year she had her second solo show in the Athens Xclusive Designers Week. Her work has been seen by and sold to well-known art collectors all over the world.
In 2010, she arrived back in the U.S. to live in New York and later in Washington, D.C., and started a jewelry line, Second Daughter, in 2011. In 2013 Speckhard decided to settle in McLean and open a studio that showcases her digital photography, video and performance art; in her pieces, she creates an ethereal child wonderland that pulls from her own nomadic life.
Out of everywhere she’s been, why McLean? Not only did the artist have a desire to raise her 6-year-old daughter in the suburbs where she grew up, but she also was looking for a slower paced life than the one she had in New York.
“In many ways I find it easier to work on my art living in McLean because there is a slower pace of life for me compared to when I was living in New York. I have more time to reflect on my work and to dig into whatever piece [or] subject matter I am working on,” she says.
Speckhard hopes to bring to the area a new perspective on art. She wants people to get excited and motivated to try new media or digital media, her favorite art forms.
“I think there’s a misconception that people in the suburbs are looking for more decorative art versus serious art, but I don’t think that’s true,” she says.
McLean has also brought Speckhard an opportunity to expand by catering to those in the area through commissioned pieces. “People want to me to come and take pictures of their families and incorporate those photos into pieces for them,” she says. “I really enjoy this kind of work, and it’s a very natural progression for me. I have always used my own family in my art.”
205 W. Jefferson St., Studio 5E, Falls Church
speckhardsavc.com
