Meet local artist Jessi Larson

Artist and interior designer Jessi Larson relaxes in her home office in Fargo, ND. Contributed photos/Jessi Larson

Jessi Larson’s home office faces east and gets the morning sun. Walls are painted seafoam green, her favorite color, and her handmade beaded suncatchers catch the light and give her energy. 

“It’s a dance party in the morning,” she said. “The golden hour in the western facing room is full of those reflections. It just makes me happy.” 

The space is where she does most of her work, both as a professional designer and a multi-hyphenate artist who’s provided graphic design services for Fargo Moorhead Choral Artists since 2013. 

The senior interior designer at JLG Architects said lending her time and artistic talents to the choir gives her a chance to swap her digital canvas for a real brush and palette.

“This season I was inspired to create original watercolor pieces for each concert instead of sticking solely to digital creations like in years past,” Larson said. 

She worked closely with FMCA Artistic Director Michael Culloton to come up with images that best depict what the choir hopes to offer audiences in 2024-25. 

Culloton said collaborating with Larson has continuously elevated the overall experience of attending an FMCA concert.

“Her work for the Fargo-Moorhead Choral Artists has been as our graphic artist, but I find that title to be too narrow. She is an artist, period,” Culloton said. “The work she has done for us over the years has brought a professional look to all of our materials, and I’m really excited that this year we will be featuring her work as a watercolor artist on all of our posters and program covers.”

Culloton added that because he’s worked with her so long, he enjoys seeing how Larson develops as an artist. 

“Jessi is finding ways to develop her own artistry through her work with us. She is a treasure,” he said. 

“I think this is the first season that’s really coalescing everything together with my art. Michael sent me the themes, the songs for each concert, and some ideas for what he was thinking for the art,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘You know what? I’ve been dabbling with watercolor; I’m going to try something new.’ ” 

Larson felt at home coming up with images for pieces that reflect upcoming concerts featuring classical and contemporary music, like Joni Mitchel and The Beatles. 

“I was called to do something original and big for this season. They’re doing The Beatles’  ‘I’ll follow the Sun,’ and I felt very excited to do something special for that.”

When it came time to actually creating the art, Larson said, “I put on the songs, lit my incense and the pieces came together really quickly. I didn’t force them and got into that flow state and it felt like I didn’t even have to try. I was immersing myself in the inspiration. I didn’t feel like I was working. I felt like it was as much for me as it was for the project.”

The results are breathtaking.

Fargo Moorhead Choral Artists designer Jessi Larson created watercolor images depicting the themes of the FMCA’s 2024-25 season. This piece will be used on promotional materials for “What Goes Around …” a concert featuring songs by Joni Mitchell and other contemporary artists. Contributed photos/Jessi Larson

Swatches, suncatchers and sun salutations

Larson has only been “playing around with watercolor” for five years. She said she was drawn to the practice after spending much of her childhood sketching “hyper-realistic” depictions of horses.

Larson grew up in Fargo and the Hawley, Minn. area where she developed a love of animals and sketching them. In her work today as an interior designer and furniture designer, she gets to draw realistically almost every day, which makes the freedom of watercolor that much more dynamic.

“I love the contrast between the very realistic drawings and the very fluid watercolor,” she said. “It’s so fluid you can just keep changing it and changing it, and it goes where it wants to go. I think it’s my favorite medium.” 

Larson has worked at JLG Architects since 2020. Before that, she was a furniture designer and marketing manager for other local firms in the region.

“I decided I wanted to take a break from interior design and went to commercial furniture dealerships for a while,” she said. “That was a very eye-opening experience from the breadth of my larger experience. Furniture design feeds into interior design and marketing all kind of fits into that, too.”

Much of what she’s learned on the job translates to other artistic aspects of her life, too. “At work, it’s not always creative. There’s pockets of that. The number one thing I have to do is be a good listener and take that information and create an environment out of what I heard,” she said.

In addition to design, marketing and painting, Larson became a certified yoga instructor several years ago and taught restorative classes at MojoFit Studios in West Fargo up until the pandemic in 2020.

She’s also a semi-professional photographer, which she said “helps me capture the essence of the art being done in front of me, like my husband performing in a band on stage.”

Suncatchers Jessi Larson makes to honor her dog Baron and raise money for the French Bulldog Rescue Network. Larson sells her suncatchers on her Etsy site. 

Larson also lends her artistic eye to creating crystal-beaded suncatchers she sells for charity in honor of her dog Baron, who died in 2021. 

“When he died, I felt called to commemorate him and give back. Little offerings to give joy to someone in life can be very healing,” Larson said. “I started making these suncatchers, which create amazing rainbows in our house and a rainbow disco. It made me happy.”

Sales from her suncatchers benefit the French Bulldog Rescue Network. “Baron was a Frenchie. Whenever I hear of a friend who lost someone special to them, I just make one and gift them,” she said. “Just doing something really heartfelt in honor of Baron brings me joy and has been one of my most favorite and fulfilling art ventures.”

It’s in the details

FMCA’s 2024-25 concert series kicks off October 19 with “What Goes Around …” and Larson’s watercolors will be a small-but-critical-detail in the larger picture of the season. After all, it’s a choir concert, not a watercolor exhibition.

But, as she said, “Good design, you sometimes don’t notice it because it’s just good and it’s there, and you’re somehow inspired. That’s what art is for me, being in an inspired space, looking at good art. It just enhances our lives.”

This article is part of a content partnership with Forum Communications. The Arts Partnership thanks FCC for supporting local art.