Jenna Watson (b. 2003, Las Vegas, Nevada) is a painter and writer currently based out of Las Vegas, NV and Savannah, GA. Through saturated colors and an aesthetic inspired by science fiction media from her childhood, she transposes personal experience into cohesive visual narratives that speak to the struggles of transitions and social expectations. Watson’s work has been shown in five group exhibitions across Savannah, most recently including Figure and Ground at ARTS Southeast. Several of her paintings have been published in the literary magazine Canyon Voices, and many works are currently being held in private collections. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in the Spring of 2026 with a B.F.A. in painting.
Artist Statement:
I travel to places that don’t exist. Almost recognizable, they dissolve into the unknown upon a second glance. Strange, empty rooms where love and loneliness collide. Alien forests and lights from distant stars. Within these spaces, faces are recognized, others are not. I pull them out from beneath the surface they’ve long been buried under. As they emerge, they represent not only themselves, but concepts. Values. They are a catalogue of memories stashed away into a cosmic library.
Memories shift between the ends of various spectrums. I utilize many of these dichotomies in my work, including complementary colors, lights and darks, and the known versus the unknown. Bright fluorescents create a deceptive sense of joy within their lurid qualities. They speak to nostalgia. Bittersweetness. Apprehension.
These concepts are part of continuously running cycles that don’t stop. They are tensions that have created conflict throughout human history. However, they have also provided a platform for universal connection through shared suffering or happiness. This is the core of the work: individual experiences put in context of the collective whole. It creates a throughline to follow, a pathway carved into the larger narrative of my symbols and characters. At the end of the path, the viewer confronts a mirror. They will either see their own reflection, or something completely new.
