Jess Milly
Artist and buisness owner

About Me

Artistic Journey

I’m Jess Milly, a third-year Fine Art student with a background in GCSE and A-level Art and Design, where I also studied Graphic Design.My practice explores mental health as a central theme, often drawing from my own lived experience. After being diagnosed with C-PTSD at 17, I began using art as a way to process, understand, and communicate that journey. This ongoing exploration forms the foundation of my work. I frequently use pinks and reds as signature colours, reflecting themes of vulnerability, intensity, and emotional depth.Alongside mental health, I use my body to explore the experience of being plus-size in contemporary society, exploring visibility, identity, and self-perception through an honest and personal lens.

Let Me Rip Myself Apart

Let Me Rip Myself Apart is an oil pastel drawing based on a picture of myself in a corset which not only pulled all of me together but also was so small that parts of my flesh spilt out of the top of the garment. I used oil pastel, as I wanted to be as expressive as I could with this piece to show my genuine emotion of frustration that I've built towards my body and self-image. This is just one of two currently within this collection

This is the second part of the collection, which is a quilt with the same image of myself stitched and painted into the panel in the middle.

I used to be a mature child; now I'm just a childish adult

I used to be a mature child; now I'm just a childish adult’ talks about the challenges of growing up after the passing of a parent and the effects it has on the way you're able to mature naturally. I wanted to create a space that makes you feel small as an adult to mimic what it feels like to be a child by finding comfort in certain spaces. I wanted to trigger the sight and sound senses to transport the viewer into the mind of their younger self.

Mini
Me

Whos to blame?

‘Who’s to blame?’- This piece of work looks at addressing the societal tendency to blame women for others reactions and actions towards their bodies; and through highlighting societal norms, it sheds light to the unjust burden of blame that is placed on women. I chose to create this feminist piece of work as I have always felt quite passionately about how women are treated today though women before us have fought so hard for a safer environment for us to live in. I used different stereotypically ‘girly’ patterns and sewing machine to create a patchwork pattern. In doing so I wanted to draw attention to and pose questions for established gender norms and expectations by using hyper femme patterns.

Jess Milly Artist and buisness owner