Feature image: Photo: Bill Cameron.
By John Sievers
“It was almost as if my drawings were already a type of choreography,” says Minnesotan artist Jessalyn Finch. She describes herself as a Body Experience Artist and an Installation Architect. Her movement towards these practices has been full of starts and stops.
Currently based in Rochester, MN, Finch came to art later in life. Initially, she focused on becoming an elite gymnast, but as an undergraduate, a serious back injury led her to reorient and complete a Bachelor of Science in Fine Arts and Eastern Philosophy. Later, she earned a Master’s in Project Management and worked in that field while training as a yoga teacher.
Work Included: Unstable, 2024, Charcoal on Paper, 96 x 88 in, Extension’s Edge, 2025, Charcoal on Paper, 86 x 43 in. , Self Monitoring, 2024, Charcoal on Paper, 95 x 43 in, See & Be Seen, 2024, Cardboard, hot glue, spray paint, 24 x 16 x 23 in , Grab & Hold, 2024, Cardboard, hot glue, paint, 24 x 17 x 21 in.
Since 2018, Finch has pursued life as an artist and has created a version of self-portraiture that explores body dysmorphia, self-perception, and body memory. These are all concepts she faced while recovering from her back injury and an eating disorder. Her work has grown from printmaking through large full-body-sized charcoal sketches to 3-D sculptures that are sometimes worn, to collaborations with dancers, and representing her creativity on film.
“Large-scale body-based drawing was my first love,” says Finch, “but I’ve always been interested in the overlap of different skills, and exhibition design. When I taught myself to sculpt, it was still grounded in the body because they were to be worn and interacted with.”
Motion is at the heart of Finch’s large black and white drawings. The larger-than-life strokes in her charcoal sketches squirm off her works and nestle in the subconscious. Even when Finch uses reference images or researches how a body works in a specific pose, she works from videos.
Finch’s large drawings led her to create painted cardboard sculptures that show aspects of motion curving through three-dimensional space in figures that can be worn like animal masks. For instance, she created a long-trunked gray elephant and a tall-eared rabbit that can be worn. They seem to emphasize certain anatomical features and use shaded painting to create a slight macabre mood. These masks later transformed into free-standing figures tall enough to walk through that look like twisted limbs painted in dark colors.
In January 2026, Finch brought her drawing and sculpture to life with motion when she premiered a short film entitled “Embodied Landscapes” at The Historic Chateau in Rochester, MN. She led an all-female team, including choreographer and dancer Mary Mailand Schlicting and cinematographer and co-director Laura Sukowatey, to create the film. The film erases boundaries between dance, sculpture, and drawing by following a wanderer guided through interior realms by an otherworldly presence. The film’s protagonist journeys through surreal landscapes filled with Finch’s large black and white sculptures and drawings.
“I’ve done so much mental work to be able to examine my experiences and create pieces about them,” Says Finch, “that it’s made me less fearful of how others perceive me.”
To learn more about Jessalyn Finch, visit jessalynfinch.com or connect on Instagram at @jessalynfinch.
Jessalyn Finch: The Body as Art is published in Issue 41. Purchase a copy here.
John Sievers is a husband, father to two daughters, trombonist, and writer from Rochester, Minnesota. He earned a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches English at Rochester Community and Technical College. His articles appear frequently in the Rochester Post Bulletin, and he enjoys writing about music, art, and culture. He’s been writing and posting a daily haiku for more than six years.