Single serving
Single Serving (2016-ongoing) oil on board
"I was paying a visit to the studio of Jessica Anne Schwartz, a promising young San Francisco artist recently transplanted to New York, and over in the corner, on the floor, off to the side—she hadn’t particularly been intending to show them to me—she had ranged a series of small painted studies on board from several months back...."
-- Lawrence Weschler
“Single Serving” is a series of twenty-four intimate, small-scale paintings on board, each portraying the same solitary spoon. What began as a chance encounter—finding a discarded spoon buried beneath pile of trash on her way to the studio one morning—evolved into a deeply personal artistic exploration. As Schwartz often experiences synesthesia, the spoon’s form sparked more than a visual response; she heard its story, a melody that wove through her senses and spoke to her own experience of singlehood. Through each brushstroke, she painted what she heard, the spoon becoming a vessel not just for her thoughts, but for her emotions, memories, and the resonance of solitude.
These paintings are, in essence, self-portraits—a quiet reflection of being alone, yet not lonely. The act of painting the spoon became an act of listening to the story it told, one that mirrored her own. Single Serving was later celebrated by renowned writer Lawrence Weschler in The Paris Review, where he described the profound depth of Schwartz’s work and the raw, intimate emotions it encapsulates.
read The Art of Spooning published in The Paris Review by Lawrence Weschler
