About
Hi There!
** Exciting update, 4th paragraph down (in bold)! **
My name is Jessica, and I’m a whimsically-hearted visual artist. I love travelling, time spent in nature, and curling up with a good book. Somewhere along the line, these passions combined with my love of colour and texture, and my many years of professional photography experience.. now I gather up my adventures and express them as ART.
A handful of years ago, my art practice branched into two distinct but related streams. The first stream is my collection of photographic wall art, which I have created by extracting elements from various photographs I’ve taken over the years, and then recomposing to create imagined landscapes. To learn more about my process and the stories behind some of these pieces, hop over to my blog, or have a virtual wander through my online gallery or shop.
The second, more recent, stream in my art practice is an experimental installation called “The Serenity Experience”. Based on my research and self-experiments about what triggers the brain to feel more calmness and happiness, I set out to discover if there were ways we could harness this information and use it intentionally to increase our sense of personal well-being. The original version was an immersive 8’x5’ hut, designed to engage all the senses. I’ve done a version at an east-end Toronto gallery in February 2019, an artist residency in Paris in October 2019, as well as my sister’s backyard in rural Ontario. The most recent version has been expanded to encompass 10 storefronts along Queen St. East in the Riverside neighbourhood of Toronto. This collaboration with the Riverside BIA also has many virtual components, so that it can be experienced by everyone right from the comfort of their homes. To learn more, check out #TheSerenityExperience page here on my website, or experience the full virtual project on the Riverside BIA’s website.
All of this, plus a couple of years of canceled shows and events, gave me the time and space to consider what I truly value in life, and to take long walks with my husband and talk about what we’d like the next few decades to look like. The result: we’ve moved to the country! We have a plan for a multi-year, multi-acre, collaborative immersive art installation. There’s a lot of work ahead, which is why I’m stepping back from studio production and the art fair circuit for a year or two. To create art as a landscape, and as a physical space to occupy and embody. And then to invite others to come spend time in it. I’m so excited. It’s going to be amazing. I hope you’ll join us in the not-too-distant future!
To follow along with this adventure, and get updates about when we’re up and running and open for business, please sign up for my newsletter here. Looking forward to seeing you soon(ish)!
Here’s a fun short interview about my artwork on Daytime Ottawa with Dylan Black!
Artist Bio
Jessica Lin is a photographic artist with a love of travel and adventure. A professional photographer since 2000, it was while traveling in France in 2008 that she discovered her creative passion for photographing new places. Trips to Ireland, England, Scotland, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Japan, Cuba, and the Azores islands have built up her library of images capturing these other worlds. Jessica extracts elements from her various photographs and recomposes them to create images with surreal layers, and turn places into fantasies. She created her first collection in 2012 using images from her trip to France, which she exhibited at the Queen West Art Crawl in Toronto that year.
Since that time, Jessica has participated in many art fairs across Ontario, her work is currently represented by three Canadian galleries, and her pieces are in collections across Canada as well as in the US, the UK, and Europe.
She has participated in three Artists’ Residencies – Alchemy at Artscape Gibraltar Point on the Toronto Islands, Once Upon Water on Pico Island in the Azores (Portugal), and most recently L’AiR Arts Research residency in Paris, France – all of which have had a lasting influence on her art practice.
In 2018, Jessica was awarded Best in Show at the Ontario Society of Artists' 145th Annual Open Juried Exhibition, and her booth was awarded Best in Show at ArtWalk in the Square in 2019.
Artist Statement
My current body of work is abstract landscape photography. I extract elements from photographs that I’ve taken while travelling, camping, or even just going about my day-to-day life, and recompose them to result in a finished image that is recognizably a landscape, but also includes layers of texture and colour in ways not found in reality.
I developed this process because I was unsatisfied with the record of events and places that photography traditionally provides. Having been a professional commercial and portrait photographer since 2000, I took a trip to France in 2008 to reconnect with what it was that I loved about photography in the first place. This 3-week trip blew my mind and completely changed my life, but the photographs I took while there didn’t come close to expressing that. After a few years of considering how to solve this problem, I began to use parts of different images to embellish each other and heighten the sense of wonder in the resulting piece. While travelling and photographing continue to be essential parts of my process, equally important to me is how I use elements from those images to create artwork that more fully express my personal experience of that time and place, or of my life in general. By researching different places and cultures before visiting, interacting with local people while there, and jounaling to record my experiences and thoughts, I gather a wide variety of impressions to inspire the artwork I’ll create from the photographs I’ve taken.
Because these are all photographs from my own life experiences, the artwork is very biographical and even a self-portrait in some cases, in spite of being a landscape image. Most pieces contain parts from 5-10 different photographs, often varying widely in terms of when and where these images were taken. The layering technique creates a visual puzzle – viewers often comment on the meditative or hypnotic experience of losing themselves in one of my pieces – both engaging to the mind and freeing to the imagination.
Throughout these pieces, the cycles of nature and the interconnectedness of everything (and everyone) are strong themes. I aim to create images that look like memories of how it feels to be in a certain place or time of your life, rather than how it looks to be in a specific place. By bringing out the magical in everyday objects and surroundings, I hope to enhance the viewer’s appreciation of the world around them.
CV
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023 Madawaska Valley Studio Tour
2022 40th annual juried group exhibition, Art Gallery of Bancroft, ON
2022 Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition: Tradition Transformed. Juried group exhibition, Orillia Museum of Art and History, Orillia, ON
2022 There’s No Place Like Home. Solo exhibition and installation, Art Gallery of Bancroft, ON
2021 Buckhorn Festival of the Arts (online)
2021 There’s No Place Like Home. Solo exhibition and installation, Studio 102 Gallery, Toronto, ON
2021 Underneath. Juried group exhibition, Art Gallery of Bancroft, ON
2020 Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition: Tradition Transformed. Juried group exhibition, Orillia Museum of Art and History, Orillia, ON
2020 The Serenity Experience in Riverside, as part of ArtworxTO. Public art installation, with interactive online components, done in collaboration with Riverside BIA.
2020 Site Visit. Curated online group exhibition by alumni of L’AiR Arts Artist Residency, Paris.
2020 ArtWalk in the Square (online)
2020 Riverdale ArtWalk (online)
2020 Re-Imagined. Overzealous juried exhibition, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Etobicoke, ON
2019 The Serenity Experience. Installation and artist talk at FIAP Jean Monnet, Paris, France
2019 ArtWalk in the Square, Toronto, ON
2019 Fantasy in the Forest, South Frontenac County, ON
2019 Oakville Art in the Park, Oakville, ON
2019 The New Art Festival, Ottawa, ON
2019 Riverdale ArtWalk, Toronto, ON
2019 Natural Selection. Joint exhibition with Sandy Middleton at Red Brick Cafe, Guelph, ON
2019 The Serenity Experience. Solo exhibition, Artists’ Network Gallery, Toronto, ON
2018 Solo exhibition, Black Canary Espresso Bar, Toronto, ON
2018 Art Walk in the Square, Toronto, ON
2018 Oakville Art in the Park, Oakville, ON
2018 Guelph Art on the Street, Guelph, ON
2018 The New Art Festival, Ottawa, ON
2018 Riverdale Art Walk, Toronto, ON
2018 Ontario Society of Artists 145th Open Juried Exhibition, Toronto, ON
2018 Isolation. Group exhibition as part of Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, Artists’ Network Gallery
2018 Solo exhibition, Albion Hotel, Guelph, ON
2018 Essential Reflections. Group exhibition with Joanna Bell and Bryant Serre, Noodle Gallery, Alton Mill Arts Centre, Caledon, ON
2017 ARTival Holiday Art Salon. Akasha Arts, Toronto, ON
2017 Once Upon Water. Group exhibition, Pico Island, The Azores, Portugal
2017 Dog Days of Summer. Group exhibition, Akasha Art Projects, Toronto, ON
2017 Canada 150. Group exhibition, Blue Crow Gallery, Toronto, ON
2017 Resident Artist Show. Group exhibition, Arta Gallery, Toronto, ON
2017 My Canada. Artists’ Network group exhibition, Art Square Gallery, Toronto, ON
2016 Oakville Art in the Park, Oakville, ON
2016 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Toronto, ON
2016 Riverdale Art Walk, Toronto, ON
2015 Autumn Blossoms. Group exhibition, Norman Felix Gallery, Toronto, ON
2015 Oakville Art in the Park, Oakville, ON
2015 Riverdale Art Walk, Toronto, ON
2015 Rosedale Art Fair, Toronto, ON
2015 Contact Festival. Group exhibition, Norman Felix Gallery, Toronto, ON
2015 The Artist Project, Toronto, ON
2014 BowsArt. Artists’ Network group exhibition, Art Square Gallery, Toronto, ON
2014 Queen West Art Crawl, Toronto, ON
2014 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Toronto, ON
2014 Riverdale Art Walk, Toronto, ON
2014 Pride in Canada. Group exhibition, Artscape Youngplace, Toronto, ON
2014 Monthly group exhibitions (February-May). Art Yard Gallery, Toronto, ON
2014 The Artist Project, Toronto, ON
2013 Cabbagetown Art & Craft Festival, Toronto ON
2013 Queen West Art Crawl, Toronto, ON
2012 Queen West Art Crawl, Toronto, ON
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Blue Crow Gallery, Toronto, ON
Oxtongue Craft Cabin and Gallery, Muskoka, ON
Quinn’s of Tweed Fine Art Gallery, Tweed, ON
Permanent installation of Jellyfish works, Galeria Costa, Pico Island, The Azores
AWARDS
2018 Best in Show, Ontario Society of Artists 145th Open Juried Exhibition
2019 Best in Show, ArtWalk in the Square, Toronto
2020 3rd Place Photography Prize, Overzealous exhibition at Neilson Park Creative Centre
COMMISSION
2016 PATCH Project, Toronto, ON. Large-scale piece to decorate construction hoarding for luxury condominium development on Charles St., Toronto.
2021 PATCH Project, Toronto, ON. Large-scale piece to decorate construction hoarding for luxury condominium development on Yonge St., Toronto.
MEDIA
2017 Rogers Daytime Ottawa. Interview about my artwork, Ottawa, ON
2016 American Gothic (TV show). Two of my pieces were used in the set decoration for the filming of this television program.
RESIDENCIES
2019 L’AiR Arts Research Residency, Paris, France, October 8-22 2019
2017 Once Upon Water, Pico Island, Azores, Portugal, June 20-30 2017
2016 Alchemy, Artscape Gibraltar Point, August 8-18 2016
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
2016-2021 CARFAC member
2018-2019 Chair of the Education Committee, Artists’ Network, Toronto, ON
2016-2019 Board member, Artists’ Network, Toronto, ON
2014-2021 Member, Artists’ Network, Toronto, ON