Jessica Furtado: Poet & Photographer

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KISS

A KISS FOR THE MISBEHAVED

Jessica's debut poetry chapbook,

now available from BatCatPress

A Kiss for the Misbehaved is a poetry collection by writer and photographer Jessica Furtado revolving around the age-old concept of growing up, focusing on sisterhood, first loves, and the unparalleled power of daydreaming.

The design of the book is representative of the gradual growth and change our narrator experiences over the course of the poems. Each book is entirely hand-painted, and each cover is letterpress printed.

The chapbook also comes with a collection of stickers, each being a piece of Jess’ photography that she’s handpicked to correlate with the poems inside.

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FLORAL FIXATION

Exhibited at Art Up Front Street in Exeter, NH

February-March, 2023

FLORAL FIXATION, the first mixed media exhibition by multi-disciplinary artist, Jessica Furtado features a colorful exploration of personal identity. Jessica's works bring together photography, paint, and dried flowers to tell stories of transformation & womanhood through self-portraiture. Much like the natural elements featured in the work, this exhibition examines how we retain our pasts while continuously being reshaped by time & experience. Jessica's work, both delicate and bold, attempts to capture what it is to be human in a world that grows increasingly chaotic and hungry for a return to nature.

exhibitions

PORTRAIT PROJECTS
BRINGING ART & COMMUNITY TOGETHER

Firsthand: A Portrait Project to Close the Distance brings humanity & connection to social distancing by capturing each participant’s unique experience of the pandemic. In June 2020, Jessica worked as Artist-in-Residence at The Switchboard in Haverhill, capturing the city's architecture & community as the backdrop to each portrait.

The project's next chapter, Second Nature: Portraits of Resilience took place in 2022, with portraits captured throughout the summer. This exhibition was on display at Cogswell ArtSpace in Haverhill, MA from October - December 2022, with a reception on October 22nd. Thank you to all who supported this project!

Second Nature is supported by a grant from the Haverhill Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, as well as the Mass Cultural Council Cultural Districts program.

SECOND NATURE: PORTRAITS OF RESILIENCE

Portraits taken during summer 2022 & exhibited in Haverhill, MA October - December 2022.

FIRSTHAND: A PORTRAIT PROJECT
TO CLOSE THE DISTANCE

Portraits taken during June 2020 & exhibited in Haverhill, MA July - August 2020.

ABOUT JESSICA

Jessica Furtado is a photographer, writer, and multi-disciplinary artist. She is the former owner of All You Need is Pug, whose whimsical pet fashions have been featured in O: The Oprah Magazine, Fortune, Daily Mail, InTouch Magazine, Etsy Editors' Picks, and others.

Jessica's visual art has appeared in PANK, Grub Street, Waxwing, & elsewhere. Her writing can be found in Rogue Agent, Stirring, & VIDA Review, among others, and her poem "Self-Portrait as Owl" was a finalist in Best of the Net (2020). Jessica was a 2020 Artist-in-Residence at The Switchboard in Haverhill, MA and a 2023 Writer-in-Residence at Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville, TN. Her work has been presented in three solo exhibitions, and she is the recipient of multiple MassCultural grants for her community-based art projects. Her debut poetry chapbook A Kiss for the Misbehaved (2023) is now available from BatCat Press.

Jessica's freelance business, Jess of All Trades offers communications & social media management, photography services, and outreach for artists and small businesses.

A former children's librarian and current adult services librarian, Jessica is a patient and flexible professional who enjoys connecting communities, organizing events, and working with fellow creatives.

She lives in Massachusetts.

About

Photography Portfolio

Bloom & Burden

First published in Waxwing literary magazine, 2019. Featured at The Switchboard gallery in Haverhill, MA, 2019.

Photography by Jessica Furtado

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Writing Portfolio

WRITING PORTFOLIO

CLICK TITLES OF WORKS TO READ & ENJOY

P O E T R Y

"When Shelley Duvall Taught Me to Be a Final Girl" Porkbelly Press (Forthcoming 2024)

"A Portrait of the Patient with Anxiety and Cheshire Cat Grin" Thimble (Forthcoming 2024)

"Herself: An Altar," Rogue Agent (August 2024)

"A Portrait of the Patient with Migraine & Carnations," "The Patient Awakens with Midnight Migraine," & "The Patient Confides in Herself," Stirring (July 2024)

"A Glittering, A Glittering, A Glittering," FERAL (June 2024)

"Three-Sided Burn" & "Snow White as Living Altar," Haunted Anthology from Porkbelly Press. Jessica's photo "Talons" appears as cover art. (November 2022)

"An Invitation," Qwerty: Fairtytales & Folklore Issue (June 2022)

"Red Rover," The Rappahannock Review (May 2022)

"Self-Portrait as Jurassic Park Raptor," Rogue Agent (April 2022)

"The World Ends in the Single Handshake," FERAL (December 2021)

"Self-Portrait as Owl," Rogue Agent (March 2020)

"Route 114," Neighbors Anthology from Crack the Spine (February 2020)

"The Harmonica Plays Sleeping Beauty " & "Ghost Disco," Stirring (January 2020)

"Bring Me Back Her Heart" & "Safe," Pretty Owl Poetry (January 2020)

"A Great Hunter" & "All Alone in Wonder" Pretty Owl Poetry (October 2019)

"Medusa Phase" & "She," From the Ashes: The Womxn Anthology from Animal Heart Press (Fall 2019)

"Dramatic Exit," Molecule: A Tiny Lit Mag (Fall 2019)

"A Mouth, Full," appears in Rogue Agent (July 2019)

"Flesh Cave," Stirring (Winter 2017)

P O E T R Y

"Conjoined,""Feeding the Wolves," "La Castiglione,""Night Swim," & "Swim Practice," Drunk Monkeys (May 2017)

"The Sister Shell," Rust + Moth (Summer 2016)

"One for the Boys" & "One of These Days," Stirring (August 2016)

"The Twin Bed," apt (June 2016)

"Cul-de-sacs," Stirring (November 2015)

"Communicating with Crows," Spry Literary Journal (Summer 2015)

"Vacancy," Treehouse Magazine (January 2013)

Additional poems can be found in The Common Ground Review, Meat for Tea, Mock Orange Magazine, A Narrow Fellow, the Sundress Publications anthology Not Somewhere Else But Here, the Merrimack College folio After a Line by Anne Bradstreet, & others.