Jami Joelle Nielsen
With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of Jami Joelle Nielsen on February 6, 2025. Jami Joelle Nielsen was born on April 2, 1983.
She graduated from Shawnee Mission North High School, received her associate degree from Johnson County Community College, and her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Kansas in 2005. She went on to work in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California Santa Barbara. She worked a summer as an elementary school outdoor art and science educator in Isla Vista, CA. Throughout the course of her life, she battled Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and many of its comorbidities. In 2014, she retired prematurely due to her disabilities. Still, despite her pain, she managed to make impressive artworks and immersed herself in Santa Barbara’s artist community.
Jami was a multifaceted individual with a broad range of knowledge, a creative spirit, and a wonderful sense of humor. Art was her passion. Her body of work combined a reverence for nature and human experience. She created assemblage, paintings and collage, using found, recycled, man-made materials, as well as elements from nature. Jami strove to develop powerful works that speak to social and environmental concerns, while encouraging dialogue, education, equity and collaboration in an inclusive community, connecting us to each other and the broader universe. Initially, she created many artworks with rusted metal and glued plastic, before her disabilities prevented her from making pieces in that style. This led Jami to make her analog, surrealist “Otherworldly Landscapes,” using cutouts from discarded science textbooks, recycled cards, old calendars, magazines, etc. She imagined different worlds with alien terrains. Many of the colorful works were vibrant, while her black and white pieces evoked a feeling of otherworldly twilight. In her own words: “I invite the viewer to interpret and explore these fantastical, ironic or dystopian worlds with me while reimagining their own place and futures.”
Jami’s art was shown in over 70 exhibitions and 10 solo exhibits nationally and internationally. She has art on permanent display at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Environmental Studies Department, as well as on the cover of a Climate Justice textbook. Her art was featured in Create! Magazine. She curated two recycled art shows, one in 2014 and a much grander exhibition in 2024. She was working on a recycled show for 2025. Beginning in 2022, she became an active participant at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop (CAW). As a member of the CAW Outreach Committee, Jami contributed to the local art scene by finding ways to support artists and helping to plan exhibitions.
She is survived by her Husband, Erik Nielsen; Mother and Father, Gary and Shirley Jeffrey of McPherson, KS; Stepbrother Kyle Jeffrey, Great Bend, KS; Stepbrother Kevin Jeffrey, Hays, KS; Half-sister Genevieve Richards, Mountlake Terrace, WA; Half-brother Walker Richards, Chicago.
The Celebration of Life will be held at 1:00-3:00p.m., March 6 2025, at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop, 631 Garden St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.
Memorials may be directed to the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop (CAW), 631 Garden St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, and the Ehlers-Danlos Society, 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor, #670, New York, NY. 10013 or 1-410-670-7577.
