Columbus-based artist Jessica Jane creates vibrant gouache artworks that feel like a warm summer afternoon. In them, sheet ghosts are stripped of their dread and replaced with domestic labour. Her ghosts do not rattle chains or haunt drafty hallways; they bake cookies, tend to lush gardens and engage in the quiet rhythms of a life they no longer fully inhabit. At first glance, the works are cozy—as seen in her warm, inviting colour palettes and charming subject matter. However, beneath the cheerful surface lies a profound metaphor for the ghostly, seemingly invisible side of mental health: the exhaustion of high-functioning depression and the dissociative experience of masking. This is why her work is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Good Health and Well-Being.
Jane’s primary medium, gouache, is central to her work’s emotional weight. As defined by the Tate, gouache is a water-soluble paint that, unlike traditional watercolour, contains white pigment to make it opaque. Where watercolour allows the white of the paper to shine through—creating a sense of light and transparency—gouache forms a thick, matte layer that completely covers the surface.
This technical property mirrors the psychological phenomenon of masking. Jane’s art visualizes the effort required to maintain a bright exterior when the internal self feels like a void. Just as the opaque paint hides the paper beneath it, Jane’s ghosts hide their internal displacement behind scenes of productivity and joy. The central figure remains an unreadable white silhouette—a non-person going through the motions of life without letting the paper (the true self) show through.
Jane’s work finds a cinematic sibling in David Lowery’s 2017 film, A Ghost Story. The film features a ghost represented by a simple white bedsheet with two eye-holes—an image that The Guardian describes as simultaneously being a "deadpan, unreadable joke-store outfit" and a piercing vessel for grief. Like Jane’s paintings, the film utilizes slow plot progression and camera movements to heighten the mundane, making tasks like eating a pie or sitting in a room feel monumental and heavy.
In both the film and Jane’s paintings, the ghost has become a silent spectator. In the movie, the spirit watches his widow move on, powerless to participate in the world of the living despite being physically present. Similarly, Jane’s ghosts bake and garden, yet their lack of facial features or physical substance suggests a deep disconnection. They are there, but they are not present. This captures the essence of dissociation: the feeling of being a spectator in one's own life, watching oneself perform tasks without feeling the accompanying emotion.
The power of Jessica Jane’s work lies in its validation of the cozy struggle. By portraying ghosts in states of domestic labour, she highlights that for those struggling with mental health, simply showing up to do the dishes or water the plants is an act of significant effort. Her ghosts provide a quiet nod to the treasure mentioned in Virginia Woolf’s A Haunted House—the small, hidden moments of persistence that keep a person anchored to the world.
Jane’s art argues that mental health isn't always a dark, shadowy graveyard. Sometimes, it looks like a brightly coloured kitchen where the baker is just a sheet with eyes. The opacity of her gouache creates these cheerful masks that invite viewers to look past bright exteriors and recognize the resilient, invisible labour of those living between the light and the void. It is a reminder that wellness is not just the absence of illness, but the courage to remain present even when one feels most like a ghost.
For more information about Jessica Jane’s paintings, visit her website www.artpal.com/Sijesns or Instagram @sijesns.