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Jessica Stammen grew up in Camden, Maine. She received her BFA from the prestigious Cooper Union School of Art and has had solo shows in both New York and Maine. Her work as an artist-in-residence at Ground Zero after September 11, 2001 earned her the Clark Foundation Fellowship with which she pursued a masters degree granted to her by New York University in 2008. Stammen currently lives in mid-coast Maine. She is pursuing the completion of a broad-based collaborative project with over 40 international artists and writers. Stammen enjoys the interrelation of her academic and artistic endeavors, as well as her urban and rural lives. Visually meditating on that which she sees during her daily activities around home and neighborhood, Stammen's painted landscapes are often seen through windows or in reflective surfaces. Near and far, internal and external, material and spiritual: two spaces become one place in her paintings that, by capturing a certain light, become windows of their own.

"You can not go on 'seeing through' things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see."

- Norman Cousins

EDUCATION
Gallatin School at New York University: Self designed M.A.
The Cooper Union School of Art, NYC, 1999-2003
The Art Students League of New York, with Peter Cox, NYC, 1998, ’99

ONE PERSON EXHIBITS
Élan Fine Arts, Rockland, ME, 2005
The Cooper Union, NYC, 2003
Sea Studio Gallery, Tenants Harbor, ME, 2002

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art, Ellsworth, ME, 2009
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art, curated by Bruce Brown, Ellsworth, ME, 2008
Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts, Trinity Wall Street, NYC, 2007
Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME, 2007
Élan Fine Arts, Rockport, ME, 2006, ’05
Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME, 2006, juried exhibit.
Union of Maine Visual Artists, Rockport, ME, 2006
St. Paul’s Chapel, NYC, 2002
Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts Society, NYC, 2002
The Cooper Union, NYC, 2001, curated by Susanna Coffey
Sea Studio Gallery, Tenants Harbor, ME, 2001
The Cooper Union, NYC, 2000, ’01, ’02,’03
Gleason Fine Art, Camden, ME, 2000, ’01, ’02

AWARDS AND HONORS
Marilyn and James Rockefeller Scholarship: Artist Grant, Maine Community Foundation, Ellsworth, ME, 2009
Clark Foundation Fellowship: 2003-2007, The Clark Foundation, NYC, 2007
Gallatin Merit Award: 2004-2006, New York University, NYC, 2006
Interviewed: WCSH NBC Channel 6’s “207” 9/11 memorial programming, Portland, ME, 2006
Featured Artist: West Ohio Healing Fields, Maria Stein, OH, 2006
Key Note Lecturer and Exhibitor: Agape 2005 Symposium, New York University, NYC, 2005
Women and Philanthropy Conference, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Cincinnati, OH, 2005
Seminar Leader, “Beauty for Ashes: Rebuilding after 9/11,” Soulfest 2004, Loon Mt, NH, 2004
Panel Speaker, General Conversation of the Episcopal Church, Minneapolis, MN, 2003
Senior Commencement Speaker: Class of 2003, The Cooper Union School of Art, NYC, 2003
Commencement Address: guest speaker, Webutuck High School, Amenia, NY, 2003
Model: Eileen Fisher Fall 2003 ad campaign, “Women Change for the World Every Day,” 2003
Top 10 College Women of 2002: Glamour Magazine (Feature: October 2002 issue), 2003
Only Female Member: Cooper Union men’s varsity basketball team, 1999-2003 seasons, 2003
Cooper Union Scholar-Athlete Ambassador of the Year, 2002,’03
Senior co-captain: Cooper Union men’s varsity basketball team, 2003
Featured in ESPN the Magazine, The New York Times, and HBOs Real Sports with Bryant Gumble, 2003
Honored at a dinner with coaching legend John Wooden
Panel Representative: “The Nobel Experiment: College Academics and Athletics,” The History
and Cultural Significance of Basketball Conference, St. Francis College, NYC, 2003
Featured: NYC Channel 2 CBSNews “Hometown Hero” segment, 12/24/2002
Molly Levenstein Scholar: The Cooper Union School of Art, NYC, 2002
Durbin Scholar: The Cooper Union School of Art, NYC, 2001
Herb Lubalin Award: The Cooper Union School of Art, NYC, 1999

COMMISSIONS AND CREATIVE PROJECTS
(September 14, 2001- May 31,2002)
Artist in Residence: St. Paul’s Chapel at Ground Zero NYC. Directed creative projects; secured donated supplies, volunteers, work space, and transportation work from these projeccts featured by CNN, The New York Times, Newsweek, The National Cathedral in Washington, D, Trinity Wall Street in NYC, and has been reproduced in countless publications and photo essays across the country. Photo Documentrarian of the Ground Zero relief effort at St. Paul’s.

(February 2002- Project Completion: May 2003)
Commissioned to crete edition of seven memorial communion chalices from salvaged WTC steel
Secured a private grant for research at the Vatican Museum. Coordinated the technical, artistic, and financial community that supported the project, working with eleven different parties including individual artists, a marine construction company, a steel galvanizing company, the New York Mayor’s Office, and the New York Historical Society. Chalices included in the collections of St. Paul’s Chapel (featured in the permanent exhibit “Unwavering Spirit”) NYC; The New York Historical Society, NYC (featured in the “Recent Acquisitions” show, March 2003); The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC; the parish of Maiano, Florence, Italy; and in the private collection of patron Massimo Ferragamo, NYC

(March 4, 2004- May 19, 2004)
Toured Cross-Country speaking about and exhibiting the chalice created for St. Paul’s. Planned itinerary, secured funding and traveled 11,150 miles from Maine to Pheonix, AZ Spoke over 40 times in 13 states about the chalice project and experiences at Ground Zero; engagements with various business, civic, religious, and education communities included: Duke University Divinity School, Durham, NC, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Catholic Student Group, Daytona Beach, FL, Witt Industries and The Greater Cincinnati Foundation Women’s Fund, Cincinnati, OH, Gunlocke Library, Wayland, NY, Hyde Park United Methodist Church, Tampa, FL, St. Henry High School, St. Henry, OH (audience of 700), The chalice project and pilgrimage has been covered widely in various newspapers across the country.

(December 2003)
Mural Commission: Private Residence, Playa Junquillal, Costa Rica (Dec 2005)
Fundraiser Branding: “Derek’s Journey,” Camden, Maine

(March 2007- Current)
Collaborative Project: commissioned 50 artists and writers (including Susanna Coffey, James Traub, Alan Crichton, Irwin Kremen, and Bruce Herman) to re-imagine individual paper debris pieces salvaged from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. Project proposal secured acceptance to NYU’s Gallatin Graduate School and funding
Secured Marilyn & James Rockefeller scholarship to complete framing of collection. Traveling exhibition of project will begin Spring 2011

Maine Home + Design
March 2010

Way of Seeing

Windows, with their rich metaphorical implications, have long been a popular subject of artists. Picasso said, “I paint a window, just as I look through a window. If this window when open doesn’t look good in my picture, I draw a curtain and close it as I would have done in my room. One must act in painting as in life, directly.”