About Jerusha...

Artist Statement

How do you explain intimacy with a horse?

I don't know if I can explain it verbally, horses envelop every part of my life. For me the words friendship and companionship are not big enough words to describe the intricacies that take place between my horses and myself. In many of my current pieces I have attempted to describe the bond that develops between humans and horses in a light that the relationship could be seen as the complex partnership that it is. This work is immensely personal and expresses things that are unique to my own experiences with horses. It is only now after researching the many different relationships that horses' have with humans that I am able to realize how personal that conversation actually is. The specifics of the content are not literally relatable to many people, including horse people; however the general themes of unity and movement are carried through universally.

My artistic process is generally spontaneous; I create very quickly and gesturally while thinking about the one aspect of the horse that I want to concentrate on in the work. I let the gesture carry me into new ideas as I develop forms. Often elements in my horsemanship studies guide this process. Most of my pieces reflect on a period in time where I was concentrating on learning specific things about horses and how to communicate with them. I always have so many questions about horse and human partnerships, and how it relates to our past as told through history, mythology, fantasy, and where horses will take us in the future . As a result my artistic process is very intuitive, and yet it is always informed by my past research as a horseman, and an artist. The history that I have developed between these two parts of myself continually directs and shapes the ideas behind each piece.

My life has been connected with horses for as long as I can remember, it seems like a given, just that they should always be there.