I like collaboration and community projects because I get to learn from other people, and because it gives me hope. I think that art can shift us, and make us see each other better. I love creating public art - my murals are a way of giving and connecting with people and bringing joy to shared spaces.
I was happy when Definity Insurance reached out to me about making a mural out of recycled materials for Earth Day. We used old paint and old tee-shirts to make a painting for an alcove in their cafeteria. I planned out and brought in a giant paint-by-number, and they delivered the magic!
I wanted to create something that had a little rain, some waves, bright sky, and bold sun - a place where land and sky could greet. It was special to spend a week with my head in the clouds. The dreamy bit about painting in public is how nice everyone is! People pull over to say “good job” and “thank you”. People honk and give thumbs up. One woman gave me a loonie, insistent that she needed to pay me something. Children stop and praise me on their trikes. A few people who camp out in the alley way offered me hamburgers and beer almost every day while I painted this one. Thanks to Mibody Toronto for making it happen, and for the support of the City of Toronto and the Lake Shore Village BIA.
I care about being a good neighbour to animals, so I was glad to be able to paint this mural in Etobicoke for the people and animals who live there. I’m hopeful it will make people happy for years to come and keep reminding us to be kind to all our neighbours. That’s what this mural is all about! It features alder leaves (Etobicoke means “where the alders grow” in the language of the Mississauga First Nation (“Adobigok”), a hint of lake, and American Kestrel, Merganser, Bufflehead, Mink, Grebe, Beaver, Egret, Mallard and a Garter Snake. Thanks to the Lake Shore BIA and the City of Toronto for making it all come about.
Three murals for Accent Decor (Atlanta Georgia) to bring cheer to their shared spaces.
In 2019 I participated in DesignTO (2020). Knife Fork Book, Canada’s beloved all poetry bookshop, was in Artscape Youngplace at the time - on the light-filled mezzanine.
Using large sheets of paper and generous amounts of watercolour paint, I made a sky - as a gift for Knife Fork Book, for readers, for poets, for anyone who walked into the space. In the story of “Henny Penny” the chicken, she’s fretful about the sky falling. In that story, the sky isn’t falling. In our story, it is. We have a collective anxiety about it. I wanted the sky to be company in that grief, and for it to uplift the voices of poets naming the sky, and so much else.
Pinned to the paper were fragments of poetry from poetry books in my library: M. Travis Lane, Catriona Wright, Gillian Sze, Shannon Webb-Campbell, Dionne Brand, Sandy Pool, Brian Teare, Puneet Dutt, Margaret Atwood, Marianne Apostilides, Paola Ferrante, Erin Emily Ann Vance, Jordan Abel, Catherine Owen, Jonarno Lawson, Anna Vakar, Anne Carson, Canisia Lubrin, Allison Strumberger, Jane Hirschfield, Goran Simic, Maureen Hynes, Shannon Bramer, Jack Gilbert, Sandra Ridley, Steve McOrmond, Jan Zwicky, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Melanie-Christine Lefebvre.
![Jessica Hiemstra - The Sky is Falling - No. 11 [94cm x 66cm].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b27cd941aef1d89f00f9db2/1747259318771-LZH8JEI34FHJRPM46LII/Jessica+Hiemstra+-+The+Sky+is+Falling+-+No.+11+%5B94cm+x+66cm%5D.jpg)
“in this/ life dancing is a kind of consolation, that shine/ at the bottom of the sky” (Shannon Bramer, from “astronauts” in Suitcases and Other Poems, Book*hug, 1999, page 56)
we see you turtle/ we love you shimmering/ in the water/ we do not want you hurt/ your glittering moons caught/ in sad plastic (keyboard poem by the grade one class at High Park Alternative School with gentle leadership from poet Shannon Bramer).
Over the course of a few days, a clever grade one class dreamed up this 13 moon turtle made out of discarded plastic. We used lids, ketchup containers, bags, old markers and water bottles. Together we imagined how to make a turtle. And then we did! It had pointy, wonderful nails. The turtle made an appearance at the Toronto Zoo in 2022 as part of the Trap the Trash Art Challenge.
(my friend Gabriel, when he was 6. I love making art with him, too.)