Jess Walters
Artist Fellow, Artist Interview, Exhibiting Artist
Jess Walters (they/them) is a 31-year old independent scholar, disability justice advocate, and emerging multimedia artist and documentary producer from Charlottesville, Va. They hold a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia and works to address structural inequities and social stigmatizations around disability, neurodivergence, deafness, and Chronic Kidney Disease.
As an Autistic Deaf person who thinks in pictures, Jess has a profound love for playing with words, gestures, and languages to creatively articulate that which they find otherwise ineffable. Through writing, collage, sculpture, photography, and other tangible forms of media, Jess utilizes artistic practices as medicinal opportunities for individual and communal reverence, a vital aspect of personal recovery. They are also a member of the Feminist Union of Charlottesville Creatives (FUCC) and a contributing author to the quarterly zine: MALA LECHE. Their work has been exhibited at Second Street Gallery, Studio IX, and Welcome Gallery.
Bio courtesy of artist.
Jess won the May 2022 Charlottesville SOUP grant to produce a documentary about surviving kidney failure and finding community and healing through art.
