*not my images*

I haven’t been able to get her out of my mind for a solid two years. 

How did I first find her work? Maybe it was good ol Pinterest. 

I was captivated by the first image I ever saw of hers—this one for jcrew.

And as I dove deeper into the world of her work, I experienced the thing I’m always talking about and aiming for in my own work: being transported. Great art transports us to another place, and inside her world I just would breathe sigh after sigh of “wow, wow, wow.” It made me feel things. It made me feel inspired, not only to approach my own creative process in new ways, but to also see the world of my regular life differently.  

I feel like great artists are also translators–they seem to speak a language that’s beyond the plane of reality the rest of us are all existing in. The wonder of this is that it’s often innate, obvious to them, but a revelation to everyone else.

Whenever I would feel bogged down, bored, or slathered in the muck of my own creativity problems, I’d escape to her world. I’d dissect her images, try to figure out what lighting she was using, try to reverse engineer the way her brain worked. It was such a welcome respite from my daily cares and a refuge from all the preconceived notions I had about what my work “had” to be–old stale ideas I didn’t even realize I was clinging to until she busted them open for me.

That’s the other thing artists do so beautifully–shatter the status quo and show us what’s possible, introduce us to shimmering ideas we didn’t even know to dream for.

And now this amazing creator is battling cancer. I don’t know Jesse personally, only as a fan over messages we’ve exchanged on the internet (and obviously a v devoted fangirl at that), but I can’t help but think about her legacy. I have no doubt her personal legacy is massive–the impact she has on her family and friends and spheres of influence outside of her work.

But taking just a small slice and zooming in on her creative legacy–I am grateful for her willingness to create. To show up and make things in the way only she could. To do what all of us need to do: just be herself, translate the beauty she sees and share it with the world in whatever form feels right, right then.

Thank you Jesse, for giving me and so many others such a feast of creative gifts. We’re all better for it. Rooting for you now and always.

(wanna dive into her world too? check out her work (along with her husband jimmy–they are an unstoppable, incredible duo!) here, Jesse on instagram here.)

Being an artist means getting stuck. We look at our work and see the holes, and we want to be doing something more. Something that feeds our artist hearts, reminds us why we fell in love with this medium in the first place, and maybe feeds our wallets too…we just want to be confident that we can walk into a shoot and create something magical every time…and then we spiral. Is that even possible? We sigh.
 
I made so many things for you!
 
I recently launched the Love Soaked Family Photography Workshops + now I’m hosting a FREE (yasss that is f’real) online workshop that’s a sneak peek of the workshop content. Check out all the details and snag your seat here, love.