Jess Yoakum

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Saturday, March 31, 2012

\"Jess Yoakum has a voice fit for radio; emotive, strong, and confident. So adept is she at manipulating her instrument, she could easily slide her way into the latest pop fad and sing 11 year-olds to sleep every night. If her mature lyrics and haunting sensibilities are any indication, nothing could be further from her interests. Yoakum-s sophomore venture, This Quiet Mile, finds her exploring a sound that lends itself well to those late-night notions about who we are, and where we-re headed. She establishes herself firmly in the pantheon of darker, more confrontational songwriters who harness longing by threading it through minor keys (Ani Difranco, Fiona Apple, and Keren Ann spring to mind)... Sparse without being modest, and direct without being brash, Jess Yoakum has found a diamond in the rough: a sound she can grow old with.\" - Chicago Acoustic Underground