Painting is silent poetry.

-Simonides

Women should be obscene and not heard.

-Groucho Marx

History has not looked kindly back upon female artists.  Painting has long been considered a 'safe' and 'virtuous' hobby of women, but not until the 20th century have women truly been considered capable of fine art.  It is artists like J. Alley who continue to prove history to be wrong.

It is wrong to label J. Alley as a female artist, but rather an artist.  Though her inspiration has largely come from the female experience, her work is universal in its messages and emotions.  Alley's two greatest influences have been her mother and her son; her mother for encouraging her to seek truths and for encouraging her to express them, and her son for being her greatest masterpiece.  All works are children to an artist, and equally so, all children are works of art.

J. Alley was raised in Virginia by her French mother and American grandparents, giving her a blend of cultures that provided her with a unique view towards world culture and human  (particularly American) idiosyncrasies.  Through her travels, J. Alley has gained a deep understanding of not only the human condition, but of human struggle and pain.  The only way to know mankind is to see him both at his most desperate and most extravagant.

From a very young age, J. Alley was drawn to the work of Eva Hess.  Though she was too young to understand Hess' work at first, there was an immediate emotional draw.  Alley has studied and grown from her first experiences with Hess' work, but she still finds Hess to be a kindred soul.

There is a deep, raw, passion that permeates throughout the work of J. Alley.   Her sincere and gentle manner is unable to cloak the passionate fire that fuels her work. To know her work is to feel that fire.  But Alley sees her work as a reaction to the forces and emotions surrounding her at a given time, "it's pure emotion that pours out on canvas for me."

In a constant effort to discover truth and understanding, Alley transforms her journey onto canvas in an abstract expressionistic style.  With such deep felt emotions poured into her paintings, even if the viewer doesn't understand the work, they will feel it.