3D-printed sculptures covered in acrylic and resin
About the artist
Jessica Elder
American
I attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute for my Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, and UC Berkeley for my Master’s in nuclear engineering. Throughout these degrees, I frequently had to use machinery to make engineering parts. While learning these techniques, I found that I much preferred using the technology to create art rather than gears. While I should have been studying thermodynamics and physics, I spent as much of my time as I could making art for friends and family. After graduate school, I moved to the DC-area to start my corporate career. This began during COVID, and I quickly found myself lonely and struggling to feel like myself. Because of this, I joined a maker space as a way of meeting new people and making art. While there, I found that making art was always my favorite part of the week, and decided to make it a larger part of my life. I very recently switched to part-time in my corporate job to give me more time to work on my art, and have truly never been happier. I’ve since opened up an art studio—J Studio LLC— in Washington D.C. to both make my own art and help others do so as well. The studio is a space for me to inspire and help others to create art, and hopefully find as much reprieve from their daily lives from creating as I do.