By Emily Miller
REXBURG—When Utah artist Rebecca Jessee looks back on the year 2020, she will remember the civil unrest. She’ll remember the division among the people. She’ll remember the immigrants from all over the world trying to make it to the United States for a better life.
Jessee will remember how the artwork she was creating at the time, based on the Book of Nephi from the Book of Mormon, told similar stories of a people from another time, and how all humanity is connected through time through these shared experiences.
“Book of Nephi” is a collection of 12 oil on canvas paintings that tell the stories of the people from the book of scripture. Jessee says she hasn’t settled on a name for the style of painting, but that her flattened, abstracted figures are based on Egyptian hieroglyphs from her studies of Egyptian art, because “the Book of Nephi references Egypt as a cultural heritage.”
The collection will be on display at the Romance Theater at 2 E. Main Street in Rexburg, Nov. 5-19. The artist will attend the Art Stroll sponsored by Rexburg Arts, Friday Nov. 5 from 5-8 p.m.
Still an art student at Brigham Young University in Provo, this is Jessee’s first invitation to show her work in a gallery, and her first time visiting Rexburg.
“I’m really, really excited to build my audience with Rexburg and Idaho,” she said.
Jessee caught the attention of Rexburg Arts Director Jed Platt through social media.
“I loved her work,” he said, “We are just thrilled to bring her here to Rexburg and to be able to show this collection for the first time. I was intrigued with her talent and her style and I noticed that she had several followers and fans here in Rexburg, and so we wanted to bring her up here so they could see her work in person.”
When Rexburg Arts extended the invitation, not specifying what work she should share, Jessee had almost completed her Book of Nephi collection.
“I had almost completed (the series) by the end of 2020,” she said, “I was really excited, because I wanted to show this series in a physical space, but I didn’t have the right connections or a venue.”
The project was born during an internship Jessee did with artist Rose Datoc Dall.
“During the internship in 2017, we talked a lot about storytelling,” Jessee said. “I love the story of Nephi. The story I initially thought of is how it relates to immigrants coming to America. A lot of them are leaving different countries or dangerous situations.”
Because of those similarities to situations from our modern day, Jessee felt that the stories of Nephi and his family could be relatable to many.
“This story has a greater impact, beyond my religious community,” she said.
Jessee said that as she painted, she found herself making more connections to the time of the Book of Nephi and today.
“A lot of times, I would be painting, and at the time I was working on an image something would happen in current events that would mirror some of the themes of the images I was working on,” she said.
She was painting the story of Laman and Lemuel fighting during the same time as riots were happening across the country.
She recalls a time she and her husband left an area of Salt Lake City right before violence erupted.
“We left just in time, before we watched on the news people throwing knives,” she said. “It was interesting painting these brothers fighting while my community was fighting.”
When civil unrest took over the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, Jessee felt moved to paint again.
“I wasn’t going to paint about the separation of the two families when they came to America,” she said. “But after the Jan. 6 riots, I thought it was important to paint a picture about a nation dividing. I was able to kind of see how the Book of Nephi really does resemble and tell stories that can either warn or help us learn and cope with current events.”
Creating the collection was an emotional experience, but one that Jessee is grateful for.
“It was an incredible experience. It was rough,” she said. “But it’s my favorite series I’ve ever done.”
Except for one that has already been purchased, Jessee’s original paintings from the series will be for sale at the gallery, along with a small number of prints.
You can connect with Jessee on her Instagram and also at her website.
For more information on this and other arts programs offered by the City of Rexburg, visit RexburgArts.org.
See rexburgcommons.com for more local news and events, and check out our community calendar here.
