Artwork Heals Through Spirit

This is my autobiography, observations, therapy and spiritual practice, lanugage of communication, post traumatic growth. Whether it is through visual image, storytelling, original composition or any combination of those, my hope is it inspires you to tell your story, find your hope, release the things that haunt you and let the arts heal you too.

“Authentic, Heartfelt, Soulwork, Intuitive, Mystical, Deeply Connective, Powerful, Calming, Meditative, Peaceful”

My work is my autobiography. Everything is spiritual.

—Jessica Waters

Parade of Hearts…It’s all about building a home and caring community through art.

For more than 100 years, Kansas City has laid claim to America’s Heartland. The Heart of America has been displayed in the form of railroad pins, at civic events, on t-shirts, to the uniforms of the legendary Monarchs Negro League Baseball Team who sported the KC heart on their uniforms. And currently, the KC heart is used as our region’s icon.

From April to August of 2024, communities from across the Kansas City region will show the world why we are known as America’s Heartland and why we have the biggest hearts. We’ve fabricated 5′ heart sculptures and asked local artists to design them to create an unprecedented art experience rooted in hope and unity.

Confluence: Where Many Paths Found Home

by Jessica Waters for the KC 2024 Parade of Hearts Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit

  • The Base

    The base honors the land and water that provides us sustance and life as well as fun. The giant feathers in the middle are to honor the origin peoples of this land: The Osage, Hopewell, Shawnee,Wyandotte, Patowatomie, Pawnee. The dots and dashes represent trails of stitches that unite us to the land and the many paths that our ancestors traveled to find this place we call home.

  • The Back: Turtle Island

    Turtle Island is the Indigenous name for the land we live on here in North America. The spirals represen the spirit, life, evolution. The red dots represent the spirits of our ancestos and the “red road” of living a good and honorable life. The baby turtle in the middle represents us, infants on this planet and all the colors in the babies spiral represent the many trials, travels and paths we walk in this life. Each green piece of the shell represents the 13 months of the original calendar, 13 moons. The border colors represent the great medicine wheel, that represents all the widom of the universe.

  • The Front

    The front represents the merging of land, people, waters and trails that formed and continue to form Kansas City. The diversity of the people in our city of all cultures are represented merging into the rolling hills and lush greenways and fields that are a part of our abundant land, where once the Shawnee, Wyandotte, Osage, Kickapoo, Potawatomi and numerous other tribes were caretakers and the sacredness of earth, water, fire and air where part of their medicine and spiritual practice, just as they are today. The confluence of the Kaw and the Missouri as well as of two cities in two different states that share an invisible dividing line are seen throughout. The power of the river that is essential to our life, crops, and future is predominant. The exterior foliage consists of a combination of wild sage and native plants to the area. The heart in the center, proclaims that these paths of the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails, as well as others lesser known, are visible across the rollings hills and rivers, has brought us all here at some point, to home.

Read The Story of My Heart

Listen to the sounds.

It all began with listening to the stories of my ancestors. Searching after, to put puzzle pieces together, exploring the routes they took, listening to the wind on the land they lived on, creating a soundtrack for their lives. This work focuses on the indigenous acestors of my Grandmother (Grand River Band Ottawa/Ojibwe, Osage, and Eastern Cherokee, Quaker, French, English).

Next Events.. Come Join me!

  • You Can't Have My Body ArtHeals Exhibit, Interurban Art House

    See two of my works @ ArtHeals Exhibit at Interurban Art House in Overland Park

  • World Labyrinth Day at Prescious Blood

    Join me at Prescious Blood Renewal Center, May 4th, 11-3 for a light lunch, mindfulness practice, walking the labyrinth and creating our own stitched labyrinths.

  • Stitch Meditations

    Stitch Meditations live on FBLive each month.

  • Adaptive Chair Yoga and Expressive Arts

    Recorded A-YEA Yoga (Adaptive Chair and Expressive Arts) Coming Soon.

  • Contemplative Photography

    Contemplative Photography Workshops in the Miksang Tradition

  • Mindful Affirmation Art

    Mindful Affirmation Art; Abstract Expressions with a Uplifting Message

  • Expressing Grief Through the Arts

    Expressive Grief Through the Arts

  • HeartMending

    HeartMending: Using Stitchwork to Help Heal Internal Places Within

  • Mark Making for Mindful Stress Reduction

    Mark Making for Mindful Stress Reduction

  • Mindful Art 101

    Learn Mindfulness Stress Reduction through a Trauma Sensitive Lens with Mindful Art 101

  • 108 Stroke Mantra Mandalas

    108 is a powerful number for when we chant mantra or prayer. 108 Stroke Mandalas combie brushstrokes with the sacred practice.

  • Mixed Media Textile Collage

    Explore Found Objects and Mixed Media Works on Fabric with Mixed Media Textile Collage

  • Nature Based Expressive Arts

    Nature Based Expressive Arts Experiences (Coming this Summer)

  • Life Design Intuitive Collage

    Life Design Intuitive. Collage

  • Expressive Watercolor Collage

    Expressive Watercolor Collage Workshop

  • Moodling

    Reveal the Unconscious with Conscious Raising Moodling

  • Finding Self Portrait Series

    Finding Self Expressive Portrait Series

  • Expressive Enso's

    Expressive Enson's

  • Love Notes

    Love Notes Workshop

Make It

Holistic Expressive Arts for Self Transformation From Someone Who Has Moved Through It Herself

Jessica Waters, Phd, LADC, CRADC, ADDC, E-RYT200/500, RMAT, CCTP, CCATP, CDBT, CIMHP, CAGCS

A seventh-generation Interdisciplinary Artist with German, Irish/UK and Indigenous ancestral lineage, Jessica is a musician, visual storyteller, art educator, scholar, spiritualist, counselor working in therapeutic expressive arts, mixed media, fibers, found objects/recycled art, photography, sculpture, digital media and painting.  She is the granddaughter of Henry Zahn, fine art illustrator, who was with Vile Goller Fine Arts in Kansas City (1930’s - 1970’s). She traverses phenomenological and inner landscapes in abstraction, and creates original musical compositions or poetry to accompany them. This has been formative in her own healing process from complex, chronic trauma. As a trained and licensed mental health practitioner she utilizes methods to help others find hope and healing as well. She has completed extensive education in education, psychology, fine arts, vocal performance, music technology, counseling and therapeutic expressive arts. Jessica has been honored to learned from and to be mentored by Anishinaabe-Ojibwe, Haundanuasee, Menomenni, Tiwa, and Tewa tribal members and elders, as well as, Curanderas(os) in the traditional folk medicine of Mexico and Latin America.

Artist Statement

My work has always been my autobiography—expressions of life as I see it, experiences, both those that am inspired by it, engage with the mystic, process experiences and work with healing, attempting to speak things that I can’t find words for, or can only feel in color or image. I claim the title of Interdisciplinary Media Artist as I am not defined by one discipline of visual art, one style or even means of artistic expression. Within this definition, I am a sound designer, composer, vocalist, author and creative storyteller with art, sound and word. I’m blessed to be able to utilize these skills and an extensive background in traditional healing practices, spiritual work, the arts, psychology and counseling, to help others heal. Everything is spiritual in my world and within these expressions, I try to deliver messages, visions and healing processes that are meant to help understand, move forward and connect. Some would label me “a wounded healer”. I like to think of myself as growing in wisdom through the weilding of brush, scissors, tingering of keys and tapping of the pencil.