Creative Origin: Volume II

Featuring Jess Dotson - Floral Poet

What Are Creative Origins?

This creative origins project began with me asking questions. Contemplating my own story. Wondering why creativity had woven its way into my life. Why it became something that I couldn’t shake or move on from. I began exploring the idea that humans are intrinsically creative as a direct result of being created. This project’s aim is to find Northeast Ohio Creatives and showcase the things that make them unique. To see how their lives have become linked to creating beauty in an attempt to capture it and share it with others.

I was Common Place’s first artist feature. The goal was to share how wonderful taking time to notice truly can be. Through film photography, I aimed to capture what I consider to be my creative origin.

Volume II features our second artist: Jess Dotson. This is project 2 of 12 in this creative origin series. Our goal is to gather, inspire and educate our community by compiling a cohesive narrative surrounding creativity, beauty, and the artistry of every day life. This project will be turned into a beautiful coffee table book available for purchase at the end of next year.

Enjoy reading about Jess and her creative origin below :)

A Letter From The Artist - Jess Dotson

My name is Jess Dotson. Owner and Florist/Floral Artist at Jess Lauren Florals.

Currently my home and studio are based in Ashland, Ohio. I live with my husband Nick and our two cats, Elouise and Fig.

My art is primarily inspired by life around me. I am, and always have been, a Noticer of beauty. That has shaped what draws me in and what elements show up in my artwork. Nearly everywhere I go, my senses are likely interacting with something that I will tuck away in my mind. It is part of my daily practice to be within the natural world and draw inspiration from it.

I am also deeply inspired by Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Paintings, Celtic Art, Fraktur Folk Art, and folk art of all kinds, Contemplative Christian literature, and illustrations in Children’s books.

My primary art-form is floral arranging. I have been an event and set and display design florist for six years.

Throughout these years, I have explored many different styles and forms of floral design, and over time, I found a voice within this medium that was my own. Flowers themselves have been my teachers. I found that weaving florals and foliage together was, for me, much like crafting a poem. Story-telling. I refer to my art as Floral Poetry.

In the last year, floral art has spilled organically into an exploration of botanical dyeing and printmaking. In using botanical matter in a new form, I am extending what it can offer to us and creating more beauty to behold and enjoy.

Both the art of floral arranging and the art of botanical dyeing is meditative and a ritual by nature.

My offerings are prayer and invitation to notice, feel and receive blessing.

Thank you for partaking in that practice with me today.

Warmly,

Jess

Jess’s Origin Zine & Reflection

Each origin project has been summarized into a zine (mini magazine) that we print and share at a monthly event in our home. Click the image below to preview the zine.

Zine

Reflection

A note about my project…

Imagine the summer sun warming your skin as you twist and pull stem upon stem in your garden bed and line your wicker basket full with produce. What richness with no end in sight. Cheery marigolds dot the edges of your garden, a signal to the deer, “this is not your lunch.” Down the road, there is a meadow; untouched by equipment or chemical. In its unobstructed state, it is swirling with native flowers, grasses and wildlife.

Flowers that I watered all summer now print and steep the cotton and silk that sways in the breeze on the clothesline.

Abundance. This is late summer’s offering.

In the pursuit of being present, I tell a story of what the natural world offers to us right now.

It feels a lot like joy.

Ordinary life is full-to-the-brim with gifts for us, if only we have the courage to look for it. Plants in the garden bed companion together and nourish one another. Forest floors and meadow-ey grasslands, wild as they are, are orderly and giving. They have plenty and enough. But they need each other to flourish.

This project is meant to evoke the abundance of our heavy late-summer garden beds and wild landscapes. Abundance that can only be created from reciprocity and nourishment.

This project is an invitation to feel. Here. Right where your feet are. To savor and be warmed by joy.

Location

Each artist will be completing a prompt surrounding creative origins. Once their project is completed, I am documenting them and their work via photography. This particular shoot took place at Jess’s home studio. An old-detached garage turned into a flower cooler and workspace.

Composition

Jess spends time sitting, thinking, planning, and designing each floral arrangement. She leans into what different colors and scents might bring to the design. How each floral stem might peak to its spectator. What movement is created. What feeling is captured. What vessel might best hold each stem. Or accentuate each arrangement.

Subject

Jess’s project leaned into her fondness of seasonality. Utilizing local florals from a small handful of Ohio farmers, as well as growing and foraging from her personal garden to make her projects each feel organic and unique. This project also entailed hand dyed fabrics from botanicals. Yet another expression of Jess and her love of nature.

Camera Gear

I captured these images on a 1986 Nikon N2020 AF Film Camera; Loaded with Portra 400. Film seems to be the best way to capture the heart of creative origins and even more so the heart of Common Place. Film is a slow and intentional medium that truly speaks to the beauty wonder and anticipation created throught art.

Q&A

When you think of creativity what comes to mind?

Nature. My greatest teacher on creativity. Nothing is more creative to me than God’s imagining of our natural world.

Was there a moment or experience that opened your eyes to a creative world?

When I was a girl, I won a short story contest at school. That moment, and the encouraging words of my teacher, sparked something in me. I felt like a creative for the first time.

What would you consider to be your creative origins?

My childhood in the country. I grew up with so much to inspire just by walking outside. I didn’t have the language for what was churning inside my heart, but looking back, I see just how much it shaped me.

Who or what first nurtured your creativity? Parent, teacher, friend, place, experience?

My Dad. As a child, he was always pointing out areas in which I was gifted and offering encouragement. Whether that was through the music, theater, writing or floristry. He always believed in me and was always present to witness me expressing myself creatively.

What outlets does your creativity most naturally flow through? Why those?

I would say that writing has come the most naturally for me. I’ve had seasons where this was not so, but for the most part, I have always been able to put pen to paper and creatively write. Other mediums, such as florals, took a lot more years of practice and study to really find my flow and voice.

Has your creative practice changed over time? If so, how?

Yes, and it is still evolving. It probably always will. I consider myself a life-long learner, and I always want to improve and be open-hearted to growth.

Where do your best ideas usually find you?

Without a doubt, on a hike. I don’t know if you can really call what I do a hike, frankly. I am constantly stopping and crouching, identifying, pointing, listening. But as a result, ideas come to me often, and why my work is known to have a natural feel.

What inspires your work in this current season of life?

I am so deep in my exploration of botanical dye right now. Discovering new techniques, working with differing dye matter, and growing my own florals for dyeing.

What ordinary thing has captured your attention lately?

Birds. Specifically tree swallows. There are probably hundreds around a particular park that I frequent. I love the way their blue backs catch the light as they glide.

What blocks in creativity keep you from doing what you love?

At times I feel like isolation in a small town can be a creative block. I have a lot of longing to commune with other creatives.

How have fear, perfectionism, or comparison shaped your creative journey?

Choosing to be a full-time artist felt a lot like cresting the edge of a cliff. In considering the public-facing aspects of creative work, such as social media, I find it challenging to not overly scrutinize or feel embarrassed. I hold back a lot and wonder often if I am being judged. It takes a lot of courage to show up and do it anyway. It is a deep value of mine to root for each other, particularly for other women, but also all creatives. While I certainly have moments where it is a struggle, comparison is not too difficult for me to release quickly when I consider the courage it takes to pursue a creative life.

Does money influence your ability to accomplish work you are consistently proud of?

Yes. Working with a medium such as florals can be profoundly challenging at times, because flowers, especially imported ones, are a luxury item and they are priced as such. In order to be profitable, florists have to mark up their pricing. It can be draining to have to “make a case” often for why things cost what they do. We often lose work after sending a quote. And personally, I have many inspired ideas that I have not made a reality, due to the expense.

Have limitations ever made your work stronger? If so, how?

I think so, in the sense that it taught me much. I’ve learned through much trial and error, what type of clients I align with and what an ideal budget is in order to create artful work.

What city/town do you call home, and how has it impacted your creative journey?

I currently live in Ashland, Ohio. There was a time that I worked in a local bakery and coffee shop and the owner kindly allowed me to sell wreaths from the bakery. The community was so responsive to them, and I will never forget that. Today I feel grateful that I live on a quiet street, and my studio is right out my back door.

Does your community have a creative culture? If so, how would you describe it?

I do think there are some really beautiful creative folks here. I don’t know if I would say there is a creative culture, however. This is something I long for.

Do you regularly gather with people from your neighborhood or local community? Why or

Yes and no. We love our neighborhood and my husband and I visit with a couple of our neighbors often. We are prayerfully considering what a relocation would look like, in a different city in Ohio.

What is something beautiful about Northeast Ohio that most people overlook?

Northeast Ohio’s beauty requires you to look. Spring ephemerals.Sunset-soaked meadows. Fireflies glittering the summer skies. And so much more. Ohio beauty has sharpened my eye for noticing.

How do you hope your work contributes to the place you call home?

I hope to bless others in small ways. Flowers are an easy companion for either your best days or ones that are filled with suffering and grief. Whether that is a bouquet for a friend’s small wedding, or a garland of flowers for a friend grieving a major loss. A dyed handkerchief or kitchen towel. I try to look for those moments.

Do you intentionally seek inspiration or education to continue growing as a creative?

Yes. I am pretty constantly seeking inspiration and education. Whether that is just beholding in life, being open to really see and for something to spark, or through an online course. I have taken many and still do from time to time.

Do you believe every single human is creative? Why or why not?

Yes. Deeply yes. I think creativity cannot be confined and even fully defined. I believe it is innate to be creative, and we all express it without thought as children in one way or another. It requires courage to hold onto the wonder of continuing your life creatively. I also believe there is much creativity in the simplicity of how we orient our lives, how we express who we are. It is limitless. What a gift.

What are you learning in this season of life?

Through the recent passing of my Dad, which was and remains a tremendous loss in my life, I am learning not to wait to create. Not to wait to try something new. Not to let fear of judgment or misunderstanding rule my choices. Life is so precious and I want to live it, fully awake and alive.

What do you hope your work leaves behind for the people and community who experience it?

I hope people experience the feeling of being seen. I hope they are inspired and intrigued. I hope they are blessed.

If someone had never experienced your work before, what do you hope they feel before they ever understand it?

I hope they see the story, the poem that I have arranged or made. I hope that it is not only beautiful to them, but interesting and unique.

Complete this sentence: “Creativity begins with…”

Creativity begins with Presence.

An Invitation to Feel

The house Jess grew up in, in Bellville, Ohio, was centered within bio-diverse landscapes.

Farmland to the left.

She would climb nearly to the top of a tree that edged the field and watched the sunset kiss the tops of the bales of hay.

A thicket to the right.

Their kind neighbors allowed us them to mow a path throughout it and encouraged them to walk it anytime they pleased. “The path”, as they called it, was filled with blackberries and black raspberries in the late summer. She would venture out in the morning with her Mom, before the heat got too intense, and fill bowls full of them. Mourning doves cooed over our heads. When she would find the perfect, plump, warm-from-the-sun berry, she couldn’t help but to plop it her mouth, and clamp her teeth down and feel its flesh burst open with sweet juice. Sometimes her Dad would take Jess and her siblings on an evening walk on the path, and he would teach them about the flora and fauna around them.

And Woods behind.

These woods were magical and deep. Filled with tall trees, and a ravine cutting through the entirety of them. The low points of the ravine would fill with water when rain fell, and that stream spilled into a river. Jess would turn over stones in the ravine to hunt for salamanders and crawfish. She would make her way down to the river and walk along the rocky edge, and search for natural springs. She would cup her hands into the ice-cold spring water and bring it up to her lips. She would swim in the deep parts of the river. She would especially be in awe of these woods in the snow. Every tree branch, framed with white. Complete stillness.

This environment stamped on her heart something that would shift and transform over the years.In early adulthood, it was simply play and practice. An almost therapeutic channel to be able to bear an abusive relationship and eventually leave it. Foraging and arranging flowers was a ritual for her then, and just her.

Over time, a deeper calling was presenting itself. To not only make florals her full-time work, but to emphasize seasonality, not only in her designs, but in the flow of her life. What unfolded was Jess’ voice as an artist.

She developed an agrestal feeling to her designs. Often responsibly foraging for botanical elements to incorporate into designs. And she worked with local flower growers as much as possible. And perhaps best of all, she began to see what she created as an offering of a blessing to people. The giving of beauty in itself is a delight to her, but what has refined over time was design that is folkloric. Storytelling. This is why she calls her work Floral Poetry. For Jess, it is like creating an embodied poem for another. It is experiential, ceremonial and sensory.

She credits the unbridled exploration of her surroundings as a child for her deep curiosity. Over the years she has become curious about botanical dyeing and herbalism. As in all things in the natural world, plants are reciprocal; giving. It has been a growing perspective for Jess, to use florals and botanicals as they take a different form. Through this exploration and study, she has expanded into also making and offering botanically dyed goods.

She accredits the process as “feeling like magic” as she creates color and print from flower heads, seed pods and minerals.

She believes God writes a love letter on each fluttery petal and textural stamen; each curve of a stem. For her, making art is prayer. Beholding. Bearing witness to Goodness.

The Beginning of A Dream

All of these origin projects are a part of a bigger dream ‘Common Place’ - This project has been in the works for almost five years. The goal has always been to gather, inspire and educate both the creative and proclaimed uncreative to see the world as worthy of wonder. Not only to admire, but to participate.

For now, we are gathering friends and neighbors in our home to drink coffee, explore Northeast Ohio artists, and to participate in conversation and activities that expand what we understand as creativity.

We are excited to see where our investment into Akron leads, what relationships we can foster, and the stories we can share.