Jessica Molesini is an illustrator and muralist, originally from Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It all began from an interest in foreign languages, even though she has been drawing since childhood, mainly manga and cartoon characters. Her initial career goal was to be able to communicate with as many people as possible beyond her native language and find a job that would allow her to do that.
At 13, she decided to enroll at a technical high school institute in Guastalla, Italy, with a course focusing on foreign languages. The school she attended was focused on developing skills and knowledge to pursue a path in commerce, gaining proficiency in English, Spanish, and French. After graduating at 18, she worked for a couple of years as an intern at a local company dealing with sales and promotions, and also in a couple of restaurants to save money to fund her move abroad.
In July 2016, at 20 years old, she moved to Seattle, Washington, USA, where she lived until January 2019 and worked as an Au Pair. While living in Seattle, Jessica traveled across the States and kept drawing, improving her skills on a self-taught basis. She felt she did not have a unique drawing style, so she spent a lot of her time off practicing from reference books borrowed from the public library, sketching people on the street or at parties with friends. She began to post art on Instagram for fun in 2016. A year later, in December, she gifted her host family a hand-drawn cartoon portrait of them, which led to her first commissions, plus a collaboration with Cultural Care Au Pair, illustrating a comic strip series about the Au Pair life shared on social media.
Jessica noticed that art could potentially be a viable career choice, but she wanted to pursue an education in the field. While still in Seattle, she took a course at North Seattle College in comic book illustration, then began to search for colleges in Europe, in light of her US visa expiring. She found a graphic design college in Dublin, Ireland, planning her life and finances to move again. She left the States in January 2019, relocating to Ireland in March of the same year. Jessica graduated in Graphic Design at Dublin Design Institute in 2021, funding her studies by working full-time in hospitality. She also developed her own projects in the meantime to improve her portfolio, doing character portraits, menu boards, her first street art piece, and taking photos for a Dublin-based bakery.
In 2022, Jessica worked as a graphic designer for an Irish candle company, practicing various aspects of the design process and assisting behind the scenes on product photo and video shoots, both in the studio and on location. Once the contract ended, she found a job through the Erasmus+ program in Seville, Spain. From January to April 2023, she worked as a marketing and workshop assistant for an art academy, continuing to document her experience through her sketchbook, posting on social media.
Once back in Dublin, she decided to take a leap and start her own business, working mainly weekends in a second job while managing the expenses and learning the basics of working for herself.
She has been working regularly as an illustrator and muralist for a year now. Her passion for languages not only led her to live, work, and study abroad, but, using illustration, it allowed her to communicate beyond the language barriers, speaking a visual language. To her, this is a win so far and she’s looking forward to seeing how things will develop.
Find out more artist HERE
