Artist Bio
"Jes", grew up in the middle of cow country outside Kansas City, both with art and music epigenetics in her family lineage. Her love for art and art making came when she was introduced to a process called “Bathtub Art” as a teenager. Through contemplative, deep connection with spirit and nature, she follows the direction of the inner working of the intuitive messages that are delivered to her and through her artmaking, often without consciously knowing what will be revealed, simply trusting the process. While living in Denver, she explored the Southwest for 25 years and the landscapes and images are still burned into her soul. She is predominantly self taught, coming from a long lineage of fine art illustrators, commercial artists and architects as well as musicians. In her midlife she completed study in fine art from KCAI, museums across the country, numerous artists, Goddard College’s MFA-IA program, CalArts, and study in art history and digital art at Lindenwood University. During the pandemic, Jes completed more than 500 works and in 2023 was selected as a 2024 Kansas City Parade of Hearts Artists, showcasing her work Confluence: Many Paths Lead Home.
Musically, Jes fell in love early. She would sing hymns at night to God in thanks creating a unique relationship... where God was and is her best friend, guide and confidant, not a punishing figure. Taking piano lessons beginning in 3rd grade and 14 years of voice lessons, Jes studied vocal music performance early in her undergraduate education at both the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Park College. She changed majors out of parental encouragment to "do something you can get a job with", to elementary education, where she had a 25 year career as an art and music teacher. In 1998, she began singing with the Park Avenue UMC Choir under the direction of Frank and JD Steele known for working with Prince. In 2004 she began composing acapella ambient and would later go on to record 23 releases, commercial and non, from 2009-2023 under the performing names Magnetic Wind, Mesawzee, Jess12Crows, Wend'eya and Jes Waters. She also performed and recorded with several Denver area bands and ambient artists such as Distrubed Earth.
She also a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor and the former Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Therapeutic Expressive Arts in Kansas City’s Northland. She is the Owner of The Medicine Lodge an expressive arts ministry. Her healing artwork shows frequently in the Mosaic Life Center Healing Art Galleries in St. Joseph and her work has been show across North America including Santa Fe's famous Canyon Road Galleries.
Arts Education
Berklee School of Music - Work in vocal music, electronic music production and musicianship.
Graduate work in Art History and Digital Art
Graduate work in Music Technology
Certificate of Transpersonal Studies in Creative Expression
Certificate in Fine Arts - Mixed Media, Kansas City Art Institute
MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts
Doctoral Work in Educational Leadership
Master of Arts Psychology
Bachelor of Science, Education -
Associates of Art, Vocal Performance -
Certified Restorative Embodiment and Expressive Arts Practitioner
Certified Stitch Meditation Teacher - Liz Kettle, Stitch Evolution
Certified Integral Sound Healing: Multiinstruments, Bowls, Voice and Tuning Forks
Contemplative Photography (Miksang Tradition) Training
Certificate in Healing Through the Arts - University of Central Florida
Certified Healing Through Art in Palliative Care Trainer - Shirley Center for Palliative Care at Cal State San Marcos
Additional Education
Certified HeartMath Clincial Provider for Stress, Anxiety and Regulation' & Trauma
Certification in Clinical Hypnotherapy
Certified Somatic Regulation Level 3 Practitioner
Certified Mental Health Integrated Medicine Practitioner
Certified Proficient End of Life and Mourning Doula
NAADAC Certifications in Women in Recovery, Wellness in Recovery, Advancements in Technology in Addiction, Recovery to Practice
Certified Clinical Trauma Professional - Arizona Trauma Institute
Certified Clinical Advanced Grief Counselor
Certified ADHD Certified Educator and Clinical Provider
Certified Mindfulness and Yoga Coach
Registered Yoga Teacher - E-RYT 500, AYT
Advanced clinical certifications in grief, trauma treatment, addiction studies, and integrated therapies (2019-2023)
Curanderismo - University of New Mexico with multiple mentor practitioners (2021 - present)
Additional study, mentoring and experiences completed in spiritual education in the yogic, Ojibwe, Tiwa, Houdanosaunee and Curanderismo, Christian Mystics, New Thought, Progressive Christianity, Buddhism, Sufism, Theosophy/Spiritualism, Shamanism, Animism and metaphysics. Extensive continuing education in counseling, grief, addictions, and trauma treatment, integrated medicine for mental health as well as, plant medicine and herbology. She is a licensed and credentialed addictions counselor in Missouri, Nebraska, Vermont, Oregon and Colorado and a Registered Psychotherapist (unlicensed) in Colorado and Vermont.
Her grandmother’s ancestral lineage is Grand River Band Ottawa/Chippewa (Ojibwe, Turtle Clan)—a tribe still fighting for tribal recognition after the 1950 dismantling of tribes, with her great grandparents in past generations found on the Durant Rolls. It also encompasses Eastern Cherokee (NC), where another line of her grandmothers lineage were enrolled tribal members and Osage (of Kentucky that traveled to Southern MO). She is not a member of an enrolled tribe at this time. Many of her current works honor her grandmother’s lineage, a matriarchal one, as she was central to her upbringing. Her grandmother was raised to hide her ancestry and association to her indigenous heritage out of fear of death living in a shoot Indian on sight state and colonization.