Jessica Collins is a native Virginian who has lived in and around the Chattanooga and Cleveland, Tennessee areas for over 20 years. She graduated high school from Baylor School as a boarding student in 1999, then went on to attend college, receiving her BA in English and Art from Appalachian State University. She then studied education at East Tennessee State University, receiving a Master of Arts in Teaching there. Her passion for art then led her to Academy of Art University, where she received an MFA in figurative painting.

Jessica started off her art career as a portrait artist, mostly painting self-portraits in oil, as well as pastels. During this time, she also taught art for 12 years in both public and private schools in Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee. When her daughter was born in 2009, she put a hold on her art career and focused on raising her child. Then, in 2018, Jessica was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, disabling her to the point that she needed to stop teaching altogether. She was also diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, further complicating things in regards to her ability to create art.

Despite these health challenges, Jessica began learning how to create fluid art, since her MS made it difficult to hold a paint brush steadily. By using a multitude of different techniques and always pouring the paint onto the canvas, Jessica has been able to reignite her creative spark over the last several years, and her new body of work represents not only her ability to fight cancer and her chronic illness, but her strength and resilience in the face of many hardships in her life. Jessica loves creating art, and she continues to paint out of her home studio in Cleveland, TN.