“Everyone does different things with their art,” said Freeport artist Deanna Jacome as she decisively pressed oil paint into a large canvas, covering an entire wall of her less-than-150-square-foot home. “My art is very gently political — it’s a like a gentle activism, I think, in being sustainable, being mindful and being so kind to the earth.”
Jacome was painting a zoomed-in snapshot of the micro-kitchen in her home that she and her husband built. Situated on a refurbished 8-by-16-foot trailer in the Freeport countryside, the structure — a blue tiny house which can best be described as a cross between cabin and colonial style — is where the painter ironically creates her larger-than-life paintings.
“I’ve had quite a few studios, all of which are astronomically larger than this studio,” Jacome said. “And other than the fact that it obviously has its challenges working so small, this fits me like a darned glove.”
The trick is living minimally. As Jacome points out, the entire home features only items that have significant value to her and her husband. The studio half of the house is framed with custom shelving for fantasy novels, such as the “Lord of the Rings” series. In the “bedroom” — a lofted space above the kitchen and bathroom — is storage for board games next to a modestly sized TV. Tiny closets and hidden drawers in the stair steps leading up to the loft hold clothing, much of which is handmade. The micro kitchen features basic cooking ingredients and tea making supplies.
Deanna Jacome Kristian Moravec / The Times Record
The macro nature of Jacome’s art practice is hidden beneath the floorboards. In preparation for quick painting session on Nov. 7, Jacome had to pry open one panel, revealing a stash of homemade oil paints and other sustainably sourced art materials.
Despite the confines of the space, Jacome appeared notably small next to her painting. Like much of her other work, the painting takes a rather small scene, such as her kitchenette, and blows it up into an unconventional scale.
“For me, my whole practice and why everything has to be so large, is because I want to create a space for the viewer to fully sink into,” she said. “If you are looking at a painting and your entire peripheral is taken up, you are in a different world.”
Jacome said the experience is meant to be physical. Her entire practice is “embodiment of place,” she said, which ties into her experience of living with Ehlers-Danlo’s Syndrome (EDS), a connective tissue condition that can vary in symptoms. In many cases, it can impact mobility.
“The body part is really important … [it’s] me putting my body in there, being comfortable in the space and finding my own footing through my journey with EDS,” Jacome said. “I’ve been in [physical therapy] for six and a half years now, letting myself occupy space and feel, in my body, stronger … like, that is what my art is about.”
Her current piece, the one dominating the wall, is called “The End of Our Beginning,” and features layers on layers of paint and more than 60 hours of work.
Painting-in-progress “The End of Our Beginning” by Deanna Jacome Kristian Moravec / The Times Record
In the painting, the tiny, cottagecore-esque kitchen is summed up by its basic elements: sink, small shelving, tea pot and a few décor items. Shadows of leaves from the window contrast with a vase of flowers on the table – a juxtaposition of old growth and new growth, Jacome said. She described the flowers as a sort of celebration of a transient moment, while the remaining items in the image (or perhaps just the entire kitchen that the two built themselves) harken back to the more permanent thing they possess together — a home.
“This painting is kind of about the change — it’s a new chapter and beginning as well. [My husband] and I have been together for seven years and we built our house together,” Jacome said. “This feels like a very grounded, settled space that for so long was in transition.”
The house was a product of careful sourcing and do-it-yourself innovation. The couple started the project in 2022, building from a trailer they sourced on Facebook Marketplace. Utilizing her in-law’s property in Massachusetts, the two drove down from Maine every weekend to spend 12 to 14 hours a day building. They designed everything from scratch, which included learning how to wire the house for solar power and using a combination of store bought and recycled materials. The home was finally hauled up to Freeport in June 2023, and the couple moved into it two months later.
“It was wild that we moved in here. We were just camping basically, not even glamping, because we didn’t have plumbing. We were full-on camping for a few months,” said Jacome of the early days in the tiny home. “We just believed in this so deeply. And we can rough it — we were fine.”
Jacome said that she studies what she will paint through drawing and paper paints, before taking the concept to a large canvas. Kristian Moravec / The Times Record
She said in the design process of the home, they worked on figuring out the essentials — for art practice, for general living — to narrow down what needed to fit into the tiny space. This selective affair mirrored Jacome’s painting process, where she works and reworks larger painting ideas on smaller scales to solidify what needs to be included and referenced in the final rendition.
“This space boils down exactly what my practice is, you see everything that I value in this room,” she said. “You see the values that we have as a couple in this room.”
Though boiled down to the basics, she said the studio in their home has been good for her creative process, describing it as “generative.” The space of course comes with physical limitations, however, which falls just short of Jacome’s dream studio. Ideally, she would be able to have two or three large paintings in process at a time. Right now, wall space allows for one mega painting.
Could this mean a second tiny home in the future? Well, the plan is to find a “smaller than most, bigger than tiny” home with a barn attached for studio space in the future, she said. Securing a bigger space for her large art is a must, even if that means turning a master bedroom into a painting space, she said. But the important thing to note is that the tiny house is not going anywhere, not matter what living upgrades she and her husband make.
“This space and this time in our lives has helped us really get to the core of what we actually need,” Jacome said. “….We love living here, and we’ll be here for a while. We’ll always have the tiny house. We’ll always use it for something creative, cause its just such a beautiful space. It was made for making art in here.”
Jacome’s work can be viewed on her website, deannajacome.com. Some of her work will be showing at Triangle Gallery in Rockland on Dec. 6 from 4 to 7 p.m.