Artist Jackie Winsor died yesterday. This is how she looked when I was her studio assistant for a semester my junior year through an internship program at Oberlin College. It was the eighties and she was a beautiful, cool, force, as is her work. Peaceful, strong, self-assured. Through her I was exposed to a macrobiotic diet, the EST program, and Bill Frisell. She introduced me to sesame noodles, which I was regularly and happily tasked to fetch on the Lower East Side. We loved them.
I first learned of her work through Oberlin's Allen Art Museum. It has a terrific collection which includes Jackie's "Four Corners". I was taken with it, the physical nature of it. She fit in with the minimalists of the time but I feel so much more soul in her work than other minimal work of that era.
I’ll never forget first meeting her at her loft on Prince Street. She shouted down at me on the street from the window something about the faulty elevator. After many long flights straight up I was warmly welcomed with a radiant smile and her dogs, Spitty and Foxy. We sat at her table where she had just opened a box of cobalt blue powdered pigment. “You mean it just came in the mail like that!?” I was thrilled and felt an immediate kinship.
For the entire semester, I worked on one sculpture in her dark studio that looked more like a woodworker’s shop with a plethora of power tools and small useful gadgets. The piece was another signature cube with small square openings in the center of all sides. The outside was white and the inside was an intense orange. My job was to file edges cleanly. I think this is the piece that started as a cube and eventually opened and hung as a cross. Cameras were heavy and expensive back then, especially for a college kid. I regret not having one photo from that time. Thankfully the memories are still clear. She was very particular and demanding. I was exhausted at the end of most days but I loved what we were making and I loved her commitment to art. There was nothing else.
I met up with her those early years after college while living in or visiting NYC but communication eventually became less frequent. I last spoke to her during COVID. She was still living in her loft and had some health issues. That didn’t stop her from chatting away. Per usual, I listened for over an hour or so to whatever was on her mind. I’d interject now and then to make her laugh — so satisfying to hear that laugh.
Through her work, she leaves behind a strong clear presence. A vibrant woman I was lucky to know.
Peace Jackie.
