With her current exhibit, electrifyingly titled !!!!!, on view at the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco, we thought it was the perfect time to introduce kids (and grownups too, of course) to British artist Rachel Jones, who has long been one of our favorites, for her exhilaratingly captivating Abstract Expressionist style.

Born to a Jamaican mother and Barbadian father in Whitechapel, East London in 1991 (just as the infamous Young British Artists group were gaining international attention), she would go on to study at Glasgow School of Art, before achieving an MA in Fine Art from the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts. Her first ever solo show at London's Thaddaeus Ropac gallery in 2021 garnered rave reviews, and she would eventually exhibit everywhere from Dallas to Shanghai to Los Angeles' venerable Regen Projects gallery.

Her work is notably held in the permanent collection of London's iconic Tate museum, who were also responsible for producing this wonderful 'Meet the Artist' video. In it, she explains some of her vibrant abstract paintings to a group of quite enthusiastic students, who politely ask her questions like, "What's your favorite color?" ("Red!) and "Do you have to use a ladder?" (She actually stands on a chair). The little ones appear rapt as Ms. Jones holds forth on her unique use of different /techniques and mediums, before they then embark on their own creative projects with the materials provided.

In a separately filmed interview, however, she offers what might just be one of the most useful tidbits of advice an artist could ever hope to learn: "I don't know what I'm going to end up making, when I start a painting. There's always the question of 'What direction should this go in?'"

Considering the end results, that strategy of healthy uncertainty has certainly worked out very well for her.