Bayou Artist | Jaki Wilkinson

ARTICLE BYSTARLA GATSON  |  PHOTOGRAPHY BYKELLY MOORE CLARK

Jaki Wilkinson has felt compelled to make art for as long as she can remember. For the times the Ouachita resident was too young to recall herself, others have reminded her of her need to create. 

Jaki Wilkinson’s title of “artist” was not given to her. She was born with it, she explains, likening her need to create to being born with blue eyes or red hair — it cannot be helped. Wilkinson has felt compelled to make art for as long as she can remember. For the times the Ouachita resident was too young to recall herself, others, like her mother, have reminded her of her need to create. 

“We were out at my great-grandmother’s,” Wilkinson says, “and she had this willow tree. I was always taking a pencil and piece of paper and sitting under [it]. I was fascinated by the bark, and I’m drawing these shapes. My mother came out there and said, ‘Girl, why you always drawing them trees?’” Wilkinson laughs as she remembers how her mom’s thick Mississippi drawl coated the question, then adds, “I looked up at her and I said, ‘Because I can’t help myself.’”

Proof of Wilkinson’s pull toward creativity is all over her upbringing, from that day under the willow tree to the doodles in all of her school notebooks and the spirit banners she painted as a high school cheerleader. That’s why it wasn’t surprising that, after graduating high school, Wilkinson decided to study art at a small, but “absolutely wonderful” program at a college in Mississippi. 

When the college chapter of her life ended, Wilkinson packed her bags and headed west to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to become a professional artist. The Land of Enchantment held plenty of creative opportunities for Wilkinson, including mural painting, Shakespearean prop building, and faux finish painting. Santa Fe offered her so many opportunities to let her creativity flow, Wilkinson says. Perhaps one of the most impactful of these was through The Willow School.

“I met someone, and he was a teacher,” she shares. “I got training to work with children with dyslexia, and long story short, we founded an elementary school. I was a core teacher, but I also ran the art program.” 

The pair’s brainchild was named The Willow School, and it was there Wilkinson discovered how deep her interest in teaching ran, declaring, “I could have taught for the rest of my life.” She’d long assumed a career as an educator might be in the cards for her — she remembers rounding up everyone in her neighborhood to teach them something when she was a child — and co-founding and teaching at The Willow School confirmed that hunch. 

“There were so many moments with these children and the enthusiasm they had for art,” she says. “They just jumped right in and grabbed hold of every project I put in front of them. And I loved that.” 

Eventually, Wilkinson and her co-founder closed the school, and Wilkinson decided to go all-in on her dreams of being a professional artist. After all, she says, that was the reason she’d moved to Santa Fe in the first place. 

“It was that moment that I said, ‘If I don’t do this now, it might be too late,’” she recalls. “Although, I know now it’s never too late.”

Wilkinson immersed herself in the Santa Fe art scene, taking oil painting classes and working in galleries to familiarize herself with others’ work, plus discover what kinds of work she was drawn to. 

“The art world there really gifted me with sight,” Wilkinson says. 

Equipped with sight — a better sense of who she was as an artist — Wilkinson began painting and selling portraits of animals. The animal paintings, several of which are hanging on her studio walls, were her introduction to portraiture and still life. Wilkinson has studied with multiple instructors in these disciplines, plus taken the time to learn techniques within her preferred medium, oil painting. 

The result of her efforts is the ability to paint pieces that not only encourage the viewer to linger with them for a while but also evoke some sort of emotional response. Art buffs will notice Wilkinson’s style is reminiscent of that of Renaissance master painters, as she uses the same chiaroscuro technique they did to make bold contrasts between light and dark in her pieces. 

Wilkinson hit her artistic stride in New Mexico, and her portraits became part of collections across the United States, Canada, Europe, and China. One painting, a depiction of New Mexico’s first native Hispanic territorial governor Donaciano Vigil, is on display at the Hall of Governors in the state capitol building. 

Now, Wilkinson has made her way back to the south to be closer to her family. Though she’s no longer in the same city that provided so many artistic opportunities for her, it doesn’t appear that Wilkinson has lost any momentum. She dove headfirst into the Twin Cities’ art scene, having participated in Downtown Gallery Crawls and shown her work at the Biedenharn Museum & Gardens and at the Courtyard Gallery, of which she is an artist collective member. 

“I came back, and the art world around here had grown tremendously,” Wilkinson says. “I was delighted. There were things going on when I left, but it had definitely changed a couple of decades later.” 

Wilkinson admits that, underneath her delight at Monroe-West Monroe’s ever-growing art community, there was a bit of hesitance to get involved. She wanted to be able to share the things she’d learned working in Santa Fe, but she was nervous about how she’d be received. Fortunately, her old master-inspired, Renaissance-esque paintings have garnered praise throughout the parish.

“People are really respecting and appreciating [my work,]” she says before adding, “It’s been a lot of fun.” 

Now, Wilkinson has settled into her life as a Louisiana artist. She has a private studio, a cozy space in the backyard of the beautifully decorated home she shares with her best friend. Her artwork covers the walls, a Mumford & Sons song plays softly through a speaker in the background, and one of her peers is on the way over for an art lesson and a critique of one of their pieces. As Wilkinson sits in the middle of it all, on a three-legged chair she’s brought back to life by stacking a pile of art encyclopedias underneath it to function as the fourth leg, she oozes contentment. She’s pursuing the life she dreamed of, something she encourages everyone to do.

“Don’t let anything stop you from fulfilling your dreams; just go for it,” Wilkinson declares. “The universe opens up to that. When I started making the conscious decision to [put myself] out there, the doors just opened up.” 

She laughs a bit — “Follow your dreams” sounds like such cliché advice, she says. But doing so has changed her life for the better, and she knows it will do the same for others, whether they’re an aspiring artist or not. Wilkinson believes a person’s dreams and talents are gifts — “I believe we all have them; some just haven’t discovered theirs yet,” she says — and says life’s too short not to make the most of them. Her creativity is a gift from God, she says, and she’s determined to use it as often as possible.

“We always think we have time,” she muses, “but we’re clocks walking around. We’re very limited in the time that we have on this earth. We have obligations, and we have other things we have to do, but I think you have to make time [for your gifts.]”

Wilkinson’s creativity is a gift she can’t help having, one she’s always felt compelled to use. That’s why she makes art — that and it’s fun, she adds. 

“Because it’s such a part of me, [it doesn’t feel like] work,” she says of painting. “I can be tired mentally, even physically, with some aspects of it. But it’s not work. It’s the greatest thing. It just makes me happy; I have a blast with it.”