pots made in kaaawa, hawaii
pots made in kaaawa, hawaii
THE ONLY WAY IS THROUGH
Join us for the art opening of Jessica Rodriguez’s multi-media art opening at Icky Love Art Loft & Gallery on May 3rd, 2025 from 11am-1pm.
About the artist:
Jessica Rodriguez is an artist based out Kailua, Hawaii, where she was born and raised. She enjoys arts and sciences and is mesmerized by the spaces where they meet. Jess is analytical, observant, and inspired by life & nature, “the creation and the destruction, the beauty and the pain, and the neutral moments of peace in-between.”
About the collection, from the artist:
This work was born in the quiet aftermath of grief—when the world doesn’t end, but something inside you does.
I turned to 35mm film as a way to hold what I couldn’t say out loud. To find stillness in motion. To make beauty out of the wreckage. Photography became a kind of ritual. A way to keep moving, to keep looking, to keep doing—because being still meant feeling everything I wasn’t ready to feel.
Escapism became my sanctuary. And then my trap.
The photographs in this exhibition were taken during that in-between space. When I was trying to outrun sorrow, but still tracing its shadow. Soft, grainy, intimate moments—honest in their attempt to be anywhere but here. They are quiet, but not peaceful. There’s longing in them. Disconnection. A reaching.
The five sculptures—portals made in earth, air, fire, water, and ether—came from a different place. A deeper place. They hold the part of the story that came after I stopped running. Each portal is an elemental vortex—a threshold I had to step through to return to myself. They are feminine, intuitive, and fierce. They asked me to feel what I buried. To sit in discomfort. To soften instead of resist.
Healing, I’ve learned, is not a straight line. It is circular. Elemental. It comes in waves, in seasons, in the moments you least expect. It’s slow. It’s tender. Sometimes it burns everything down before anything new can grow.
This work is a map of that process. Of leaving and returning. Of forgetting and remembering. Of making peace with the parts of myself I used to run from.
It’s about the seduction of escape—and the beauty of surrender. About learning to stay. To feel. To heal.
Because in the end, the truth is simple. The only way out is through.
“There is an unpredictable nature to ceramics and film photography, making them her favorite mediums to work with.
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OPENING RECEPTION: MAY 3rd, 11AM-1PM
Join us at the gallery on May 3rd from 11am-2pm where you'll have the opportunity to meet Jessica and gain insight into her artistic journey, process and the meaning behind “The Only Way is Through”. Light refreshments will be served. This is a free event but RSVP's are appreciated.
