In 2025, it’s easy to feel like anything remotely cool has already been done. Bachelor of Fine Arts student Skylar Jory proves that notion wrong. From expressive paint styles to stippling and stenciling, Jory stands out as someone who isn’t afraid to take risks. Edition 77, Volume 2 of Brushfire boasts one of Jory’s latest works– a bright, vivacious stippled painting in black and yellow, fittingly titled Hypnosis.
Upon meeting Skylar, I learned that she talks fast, and as someone who also talks fast, this was refreshing. With white hair, a nose piercing, and paint smudges on her arms, Jory blends in with art students but stands out in a crowd of pretty much anyone else. We talk while sitting near Manzanita Lake, enjoying the often-underappreciated south side of campus.
Hypnosis
Jory has always been on the more artistic side, but it wasn’t until middle school that she really found her purpose in painting and drawing. A family member gave her tubs of art materials when she moved away, and the rest is history. In high school, she painted shoes, HydroFlasks, skate decks–any blank surface was her canvas. These creative endeavors opened her up to a world of artistic possibilities, and Jory enrolled at UNR as a freshman majoring in graphic design.
“I have no idea if I would have ended up in art if she didn’t just give me a bunch of stuff to do it.” Jory said.
While Jory began at UNR as a graphic design major, she quickly switched to painting when she realized how much she missed the physical aspect of art. Now, she’s in her first semester of UNR’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program with an emphasis in painting and a minor in Spanish.
Jory is no stranger to Brushfire. The artist-extrordinare has three pieces in our last edition (Edition 77, Volume 2) alone– Vanquished, Hunter, and the aforementioned Hypnosis. Vanquished plays with shadows and contours, using only black, red, and white. Hunter shows the outlines of a man in darkness, highlighting parts of his face while downplaying others. Jory pulls from the deep well of human emotion with only a few hex codes.
Vanquished
Hunter
“I started to lean into stippling,” Jory said about The Performer, a painting featured in Brushfire Issue 76, Volume 2. The Performer pictures a young woman smoking, her spiked hair smooth with stippling. “I was trying new ways of making art, and I had a really big interest in contrast.”
Although she studies painting, Jory actually prefers to draw. For her, drawing is a lot more technical. Now that she’s a pro, it’s a nice mind-numbing release that serves as a way for her to relax. Painting, however, is an emotional release. She loves the variety of the craft–painting large swaths across canvases, refining minute details, and being physically immersed in her art.
“I felt like I could be a little bit more expressive. I can talk about these really complicated things through paint, and I don’t feel like I could have done something like that with drawing,” Jory said. “Painting is a more expressive art.”
In terms of inspiration, a lot of Jory’s individuality comes from her experiences. Some have been familial, some have been romantic; all have been quietly personal. Taking something like a family photo, digitally stretching or altering it, and then drawing or painting over it, is a cathartic release of the emotion that comes with being an artist. Pieces like Inundated, Unspoken Equity, and Imminent explore familial roots and experiences she’s had.
From left to right: Inundated, Unspoken Equity, and Imminent.
“These paintings really explore all these connections to everything,” she said. “As a person, being a person, having connections with other people and things… it’s just crazy to me. Being a person is crazy. Having consciousness is crazy.”
Jory was initially inspired to submit to Brushfire by a fellow classmate. To her surprise, (but not to mine) her piece was accepted, and she’s made it a mission to submit something each semester since. For future Brushfire journals, I hope she continues.
After graduation, she wants to go into tattooing, a field that will allow her to produce her own art and share it with people. However, Jory isn’t tied to one idea or artistic field.
“There’s art everywhere and we don’t even realize it,” Jory says before parting ways. “I feel like there’s so many opportunities for me.”
You can find Skylar on Instagram at @squeiy.
