Winner of a 2025 Public Media Award for Visual Arts 

and a 2025 Virginia Association of Broadcasters Award for Best Human Interest Series

Artistic Encounters -Meet the Artist essentially takes the artist from behind the camera and welcomes them into the Blue Ridge PBS studio.  This provides our arts loving audience the opportunity to meet the featured artist while they introduce their works one on one. Specially curated pieces from their collection will be on display during the reception and for several weeks afterwards with many available to take home by making a donation to Blue Ridge PBS. Additionally, each artist will donate one piece to Blue Ridge PBS which will then be auctioned the night of the artist’s reception. Proceeds benefit the artist and Blue Ridge PBS so it may continue its mission of enriching people’s lives by providing educational, informational, and cultural programming that fills a unique role as a positive and lifelong resource for the communities we serve.

Jesi Pace-Berkeley paints big, bold, loose, and layered works. She stands and paints with her entire body and soul. According to Jesi, “I respond to a persistent and necessary drive to get these emotions off my shoulders. The works take the form of faces, bodies, landscapes, still life items, or whatever the subject becomes.”

For Jesi, it is all about communication. As a self-taught watercolor painter, her aim is to create an almost "nonverbal vocabulary" using color, shape, texture, and tone.

Her works have been included in collections featured at the Chrysler Museum, Guggenheim Gallery, and many more. Additionally, she has been recognized with awards from the Virginia Watercolor Society, Chesapeake Bay Watercolor Society, and Stockley Garden Art Show to name a few.

Currently, she is a private art instructor in Blacksburg, VA.

Reception: 

Thursday, June 25 from 4 – 6 pm

Exhibit & Sale: 

Weekdays, June 29 – July 10 from 1 – 4 pm 
And by appointment. 
Closed July 3

Admission is free. 
 Blue Ridge PBS: 1215 McNeil Drive, Roanoke, VA 24015

In order for the series to continue we need funding and artists! Please reach out to ArtisticEncounters@BlueRidgePBS.org

Recognizing and supporting Blue Ridge PBS’ artist series, Meet the Artist 

• Brenda Barksdale
• Ann Martyn 
• Mark Wheeler

Support this series  -Pledge Now!