Janice Essick’s paintings are boundless and expressive, intimate and compelling. Drawn from personal history as well as invention, her paintings of women, men, horses, and cityscapes compose an extensive iconography that spans her 19-year career at Interact. She is an ardent recorder of people, both in groups and alone, showing dramatic faces and personal style. Working intuitively and incessantly, Essick adds layers of medium until a piece looks right. In the studio, she surrounds herself with reference books, markers, and paints, a spread of images and media to choose from. 

 “Janice doesn’t wait for inspiration to strike; she comes into the studio ready to work,” writes Essick’s advocate, Rachel Quast. “The first half hour of the day is spent compiling her materials; Janice primarily works in acrylic paint, with the occasional dip into markers. She’s intently focused on her work and will occasionally use music to help ease out the edges of a rough day – Madonna's “Who’s That Girl” track is her go to jam.”  

 Essick presented her first solo exhibition, This is a Picture that Janice Made, at Interact Gallery in 2022. She has presented work in two-person and group exhibitions in venues throughout Minnesota, including Midway Contemporary Art, The White Page, and HGA Architects & Engineers. In 2024, her work was selected for inclusion in The Art of Disability Justice Now at the Mill City Museum. In 2021, Essick collaborated with New York-based accessories label KARA on promotional artwork for their Spring 2021 capsule collection. Her work is in private collections in the United States and abroad. In 2025, Interact presented work by Essick and four other artists in its debut at the Outsider Art Fair in New York.