Light and Loss, Hope and Connection

Linda Marcus

Jaymee Harvey Willms is masterful at putting things back together, especially after she purposefully breaks them. The assemblage artist and Director of the Villa Terrace and Charles Allis Art Museums current body of work involves taking quotidian objects and breaking them and remaking them into new sculptures. “I started to break things and put them back together and for about 7-8 months I had this feeling that I had to fix it.”

The “feeling” has its roots in the devastating loss of her stillborn twin boys in 2022. Harvey Willms says she was 5 and a half months pregnant and nearly lost her own life while giving birth when her blood pressure dropped, and she lost a lot of blood. She recalls, “When that happened, I was, my husband was, we were totally caught off guard.” Harvey Willms says almost immediately she began to wrestle with emotions of shame, fear, and mourning. Instead of leaving the hospital with her twin boys she was handed a box with small knit hats and “anything the hospital staff could find”. Not even a birth certificates were given. She says, “From the beginning I’m already starting to feel like I did something. It’s my fault. When you think it’s your fault you can go into shame and spiral and that can last for a long time.”

She is now focused on destigmatizing the guilt and shame parents feel with the loss of a child. By making work about it and talking about it openly she hopes to encourage conversation.

Harvey Willms eventually found out a genetic abnormality caused the still births. She is now focused on destigmatizing the guilt and shame parents feel with the loss of a child. By making work about it and talking about it openly she hopes to encourage conversation. The current work is also the culmination of Harvey Willms long personal and educational journey.

She received her Bachelor of fine arts and art history from the University of South Dakota and her MA from State University of New York in Albany. She began in painting for her bachelor’s but switched to sculpture after applying for her master’s degree program. She says, “I believed I wanted to be the next Georgia Okeefe and take on the world of painting. But I’m a lot messier than most painters and I like materials so much. I’m in love with them.”

Harvey Willms says feminism also plays a big part in her journey. Growing up evangelical she didn’t realize the opportunities available to her. “When I met feminism, suddenly it made me realize that maybe I had more power than my church allowed me to have.”

Perhaps it’s that power or permission Harvey Willms now has which allows her to break lamps, ceramic hens, bunnies, and garden gnomes. Harvey Willms purposely puts the lamps back together in a haphazard way. The result is a sculpture with utilitarian value. She says, “Knowing that nothing could be the same, it had to happen in these lamps. I like the idea of breaking them and then they would still work.”

The work is collaborative according to Harvey Willms. “My items come out of thrift stores. I’m buying them with the thought that a midwestern woman bought them.” And when people view the final work, Harvey Willms says she hopes it will resonate.” I hope when they see my work, they see someone they recognize, and aunt, uncle or someone who is struggling.”

Jaymee Harvey Willms is an artist living and working in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin. She was born and raised in Maplewood, Minnesota. From there she moved to South Dakota where she received her BFA in painting and art history from the University of South Dakota. In 2015 she went on to graduate from SUNY Albany with her MFA in sculpture. Currently, she serves her community as Executive Director of the Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Art Museums and an adjunct instructor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Jaymee lives with her husband in Hartford Wisconsin. A mother of twin boys, George and Allen, who were stillborn in March of 2021, her current work processes grief, mourning, fear and hope. She believes in fearless advocacy and the power of storytelling. She has had international residencies, shows her work across the United States, and continues to make work in her studio in Milwaukee’s Walker's Point neighborhood. Visit jaymeeharveywillms.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @jkayeharvey