“I can’t remember a time that I didn’t do some type of art” Jesse told us in a recent conversation about his current exhibition at the Daydream gallery titled 'What I’ve Learned'. Most of the Daydream community probably knows Jesse as a freak of nature when it comes to surfing. Watching Jesse express himself through the medium of wave riding is incredible. He can noseride logs with the greatest of ease and blast airs on low volume boards that he’s hand shaped for himself. But having Jesse in our gallery gives us a chance to share a bit more about Jesse’s depth of character and what lies inside the mind of this incredible surfing talent.
While he doesn’t necessarily deem it as a replacement for therapy, Jesse sees painting and making art as therapeutic and a way for him to communicate to himself and others. From the age of 17-25 he was having different medications thrown at him by doctors attempting to address bipolar diagnoses he received at 17. Some medications would work and some would not. Painting helped him express himself through these ups and downs as imagery is his language of choice. The mental health community is a place where he wants to make an impact - helping kids from his personal experience. He wishes he had someone that could’ve shown him the ropes.
Jesse has been migrating between Orange County and Hawaii during his lifetime and found himself changing locations often. He also had the opportunity to travel a lot for surfing, in his earlier days for competition and now with more of a focus on his free surfing career. With a lot of moving pieces in his life, there was one stable throughline. Jesse’s grandparents started a screenprinting business in 1986, in fact, his mom was working for them laying up screens while she was pregnant with Jesse. This old screenprinting warehouse is now where Jesse calls home to his creative wonderland, a studio space that allows him to explore his vast mediums of self expression from screenprinting and adorning vintage clothing to painting and shaping surfboards, this little space holds some very powerful, healing energy.
The Daydream gallery is a tiny little peephole lens that gives you a glimpse into Jesse’s world. It also serves as a generalizable takeaway for everyone to remember, there is so much to learn about others and often what you see on the surface doesn’t reflect the complexity that lies beneath it. It’s just another reminder to approach others with love and compassion.
