original drawings on paper, 2021-2025

Family Vacation, 2023-Present

Jessie Mahon’s colored pencil drawings focus on an ever-evolving depiction of self and the shared experience of living. Family Vacation invites us into intimate portraits, scenes, and moments, signaling a tender – and sometimes violent – relationship to the body and the surrounding environment. We are all the Family, on a Vacation whose destination, duration, and itinerary is unclear and unknowable.

Sky Drop, 2024

Composed of three distinct elements – sky, land, and people – Sky Drop is a reflection on community, make-believe, and the complicities of modern life in Los Angeles, California. With an extensive background in scenic art, Jessie Mahon invites viewers into a small vista using some of the same techniques, tools, and treatments she used while world-building in theatre and television. The unique beauty of Los Angeles is a result of its people and its landscape. This duality also creates a central paradox: as the city expands to accommodate its residents and maintain its global impact, its landscape is inevitably interrupted. The city’s people become a part of its scenery – all of us taking in the same view.

Installation photos under “Projects” tab.

The World Will Still Absorb You, 2023-Present

The World Will Still Absorb You asks us to look closely at human touch. Each drawing includes at least one element from the natural world that’s been manipulated into something manufactured for public ease, utility, pleasure, or consumption. In developing this series, I found myself wondering at what point does creation become destruction? At what point does care become neglect? Where exactly is the threshold designating what’s necessary for our survival and what isn’t? Is it different for everyone? The World Will Still Absorb You is less of a threat and more of a hope. Regardless of what we build, where we are, what we do in our lifetimes, there is always the possibility to begin – again and again.

ALIVE, AGAIN, 2021-Present

ALIVE, AGAIN explores the inevitability of renewal. Using simple figures filled with elements from the natural world, this collection asks its viewers to look inward and question humanity’s perpetual struggle with expectation. What if we anticipated the opportunity to begin again – infinitely and without restriction – regardless of our surroundings and free from the judgment and social trappings of age or experience? What if we were as tender to ourselves as we are to a new leaf, gently unfurling and reaching towards the sun?