My name is Jessica Tuterow, my art name is candellakokoro. candella is a play on candelabra or candle and kokoro in Japanese means heart so together my art name means the light of my heart.

I started actively drawing at the age of 7. In elementary school I remember having to draw Garfield and I colored his fir in different directions and my art teacher told me that I needed to color in on direction to make my art look nicer, I learned to take criticism and decide if I wanted to follow it or do my own thing. In middle school, my older sister showed me how to think outside the box by having my characters sit or face different directions. In high school I was proud that my homework made it up on the artists of the day/week every time. Through out college I practiced different mediums and had taken on a few freelance projects here and there if I had any free time after classwork. I entered a few contests and won some awards.

I got married in high school and had two kids within 11 months of each other. My children taught me that it was ok to get very messy while having fun creative projects. Most importantly that its ok if the art didn’t come out the way you intended or especially if you don’t like the finished product, as long as you had fun and possibly learned a new skill in the process.

I have participated in a couple of conventions as an artist vendor and had a blast and plan to attend more of them in the future.I currently work at Walmart so that we can pay the bills, however I am constantly trying to find time to cultivate my creativity. I really hope that I can make enough money to not have to work outside of my art.