A Museum Memoir

JESSICA TACKETT

From the pieces of a story I'm still putting together.

Exhibit I

Before I Had Words

I was born in Siberia. Adopted from Russia. Named Olja. Before I could ask a single question about where I came from, I was already on my way somewhere else. This is where the connection began — quietly, quickly, and completely. I don't remember any of it. I've spent a lifetime painting my way back to it — one canvas at a time.

Exhibit II

What They Sent With Me

A velvet dress. A lacquered box. A small golden icon. These objects crossed an ocean with me — every one of them kept. They weren't heirlooms. They were evidence. That somewhere, someone wanted me to remember. I still do. Now, I paint them.

Exhibit III

The Girl I Was

I had hot pink carpet. Bold, unapologetic, entirely mine. I grew up in a family that loved me fiercely — my mother always reminding me that family isn't blood, it's the ones who show you love and loyalty. I carried that with me. I still do. That little girl already knew something about color. She just hadn't found her medium yet.

Exhibit IV

In the Studio

This is where the questions become paint. Every detail — the iridescent wing, the pearl at the center of a poppy, the folk swirl of a pattern I studied for years — is placed with intention. The studio isn't where I escape my story. It's where I finally tell it.

Exhibit V

The Series

The Echoes of Olja collection started with a question: What does it mean to belong to a culture you weren't raised inside? It became something I didn't expect — a love letter to becoming. To the people who nurtured me, the memories that shaped me, and the little girl whose echoes continue to bloom through every piece I create. Each painting is an echo. Together, they are a voice.

Exhibit VI

The Artist

I am not just an artist. I am an educator, a leader, a creator — someone who has always believed that art is meant to be shared, not kept. I earned a BFA, then an MFA in Art Education — not because I needed permission to make art, but because I wanted to understand it deeply enough to give it away. To teach it. To watch it change someone the way it changed me.

I paint from memory and from longing. From velvet dresses and unanswered questions. From the work ethic my parents modeled every single day. They showed me what it means to show up, to push through, to build something that matters. These brushes aren't just tools. They're how I lead.

There is also a love that made space for all of this. My husband's unwavering support — the kind that sees you fully and believes in you before you believe in yourself — motivated me to use my gift again. To find the pink again. The boldness I had as a little girl with hot pink carpet came back to me through his love, and it found its way into the work. Into Olja's Pearls. Into every piece that dares to be tender and luminous at once.

My work isn't just something to hang on a wall. It's something to stand in front of — and feel seen. If it inspires even one person to create, to lead, to tell their own story — then it has done exactly what it was made to do.

The Story Continues

Follow Along

Behind-the-scenes studio moments, cinematic art films, teaching, and the echoes still unfolding. Come find me — the story is always continuing.

Own an Echo

Every story leaves an echo.
What's yours?

These paintings were born from belonging — from the belief that family isn't blood, it's love. That identity isn't where you're from, it's what you carry. That somewhere inside each of us lives an inner child who already knew their color — they just hadn't found their medium yet. When you bring one of these pieces home, you're not just collecting art. You're letting an echo of this story live inside yours.