Paintings | Wynter Jones Art

"Already Been Chewed"

The Imperfecta Gallery is excited to present Already Been Chewed, a solo exhibition featuring Portland based artist Wynter Jones. On view on December 6-27, the show explores memory, identity, and the lingering effects of religious and patriarchal conditioning.

Drawing from her early experiences growing up within the Mormon faith, this body of work unearths embedded memories—some tender, others painful, many absurd—that continue to revisit her internal landscape 25 years later.

Rather than presenting a linear narrative, this body of work wanders, stumbles, and circles back on itself, mimicking the nonlinear nature of memory and the way it persists or dissipates. Through drawing and painting, she attempts to shape the intangible and blurred impressions that persist long after the doctrine has been rejected and abandoned.

What emerges is more than a denunciation of patriarchy, but a complex act of witnessing. Already Been Chewed sits with the discomfort, the absurdity, and the ambiguity of what remains. It asks: What stays with us, even when we think we've moved on? What narratives and past beliefs do we internalize, and how do they continue to echo in our body?

This exhibition honors the residue of lived experience—the traces of a culture that shaped, constrained, and ultimately failed to define her. In holding these fragments to the light, she invites viewers to reflect on their own histories, asking how memory, shame, tenderness, and resilience coexist within us all.

"The Bandit"

This work revisits the story of Joseph Smith Jr. and Emma Hale Smith. Deeply opposed to their union, Emma’s father, Isaac Hale, forbade her from marrying Smith. Defying her family’s wishes, Emma eloped with him while her father was away at church—an act that severed their relationship permanently. Emma would be the first to shoulder the weight of Joseph's revelation on plural marriage.

"Power Of The Priesthood"

Growing up in the Mormon faith as a young woman, moments of vulnerability, such as birth, illness and baptism, were mediated through priesthood blessings performed exclusively by men. Being surrounded by a circle of male authority, their hands resting on my head, being a receptacle to their widsom and power, I was to consume, be consumed, and reminded that power flowed only through them.

"Her Body, His Revelation"

This piece explores Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the 19th-century revelation on plural marriage, profoundly impacting the life of Joseph's first wife, Emma Hale Smith. In this text, Emma is directly commanded to accept the newly revealed practice. Verse 52 reads:

“And let mine handmaid Emma Smith receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me… for I am the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice.” The revelation goes on to describe the conditions under which a man may take multiple wives, including the oft-quoted passage: “And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him…” (D&C 132:61)

These verses outline the asymmetrical structure of women and men in the LDS church, sanctified subservience, and an open door for men to act on desires for women endessly, while they are commanded to accept it, no matter the discomfort it may render. In the "Celestial Kingdom" (where Mormons believe the highest realm of heaven is), men will continue to practice polygamy and women will continue to abide. A woman may not enter this part of heaven without her husband calling her through the "veil". Subservience on earth and subservience in heaven.

"Fanny"

This piece reflects on one of the first pieces of “anti-Mormon” literature I encountered as a young girl. It created one of the first cracks in my testimony of the church and what I knew about "church history". I learned about Fanny Alger, a young woman living and working in the Smith household in the 1830s. The story described Emma Smith discovering Joseph and Fanny together in a barn... Growing up, I learned little about polygmany, let alone Fanny and Emma, or the revelation on plural marriage. What I was taught instead was a steady story of persecution: Joseph driven from place to place across the Midwest until his death in Carthage Jail. As I began to dig more, it became clear to me that Joseph Smith was being driven from place to place because of improprieties with women, daughters, sisters, and even wives of others. The perscution complex I was spoonfed began to dissolve, and I now wonder how many women suffered at the hands of his "revelations."

"Living In Shadows"

As a child , I rarely heard much about polygamy. What I remember most was the comments about how hard it must have been for Brigham Young to manage so many women. Emma Smith, was the first to shoulder the weight of Joseph’s revelation on plural marriage. Before polygamy became a policy or a principle, it was Emma's burdern, the woman who bore its first wound. When Joseph was murdered in Illinois she left the fold of saints who pioneered to Utah with Brigham Young. She and her son started the reorganized LDS church.

"Don't Ask Me, Ask Spencer"

his piece reflects the ways patriarchal voices have often spoken over women in Mormonism. Speaking up and asking questions of my own was a damning endevour for years. As children, our parents would whipser in our ears what to say during testimony meeting at church. I was told what to underline in my scriptures and what questions to ask. The inquiry and findings were synchronous in a sense that they were never my own.

"Already Been Chewed"

This sketch is the seedling that sprouted this show. Remembering the absurd analogies and tales of my youth, I started with this drawing, a chewed piece of gum. In "Young Women's" we were told to keep ourselves chaste, because if we did not, we would be likened to a chewed piece of gum. And what man wants to chew ABC gum? After being compared to cattle here and there, gum was a clever leap.

"I Am"

25 years later and still stuck in my head... We are daughters of our Heavenly Father who loves us and we love him. We will stand as witnesses of God at all times, in all things and in all places, as we strive to live the young women values. Which are, faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowlege, choice and accountability, good works and integrity. We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values we will be prepared to make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.