ART | ARTIST STORY

My Personal Artist Story — Jillian Amatt

It’s been an incredible journey.

When I first started this publication, Share Your Creativity, I knew that I wanted to use it to inspire others. I firmly believe that all humans are creative in one way or the other, and my mission in life is to unlock it in others and to help them realize that they too have a creative voice.

My creativity has helped me through many difficult points in my life. Somehow, when I put pen to paper or brush to canvas, all the worries in my mind melt away into nothingness. For me, art is an escape from the pressing matters of our world. And it is a way for me to channel my voice.

What does my voice say?

I am mostly an abstract artist. Much of the art that effortlessly flows out of me can be seen as just a mishmash of color, patterns and textures. Often people have asked me what I am trying to say with a certain piece of art, and the honest answer is that I don’t know.

When I sit down to create, I rarely have any idea of what will come out. I simply just start and let my hand do the work. Somehow, my brain connects an idea to my hand, and it starts to move. Often I feel like I have no control over it.

I didn’t know that I was an artist

If you haven’t read my other artist story, you won’t know that I didn’t know that I was an artist. Despite showing signs of being creative as a kid (as you can see from the stunning art piece in my lead photo (ha!)), I wasn’t encouraged down a creative path. Instead, I figured it out on my own at the age of 30, in 2006, when I took a pottery class.

It was then that the right side of my brain was re-opened and my life changed in an instant. From that fateful day, when I held the clay in my hands for the first time, creating art has been at the forefront of my life.

I caught on to pottery very quickly and developed an individual style effortlessly. Other potters told me that I was lucky. I guess some potters work at developing a unique style for years. Honestly, I didn’t think much about developing a style, I just let the style flow out of me.

I loved making things out of clay and when I really think about it, it is the medium that I miss the most as I travel full-time these days. One can’t just bring pottery supplies and clay around with them while they travel. But I find myself standing and ogling at ceramic wares in many countries that we travel to, wishing that I could somehow get my hands dirty as well.

After discovering this creative side of myself, it was all guns a blazing. I bought so many art supplies and decided to create as much as possible. Purchasing my first sketchbook was an exciting event.

Intricate doodles started to come out of me as my creative voice put pen to paper.

Soon I discovered Polymer Clay. This was a medium that I got really excited about because I was able to combine my love of bright colors with the patterns and textures that I created with a pen. Plus, I didn’t need a huge kiln and mass amounts of clay, I only needed a toaster oven to bake my creations.

I taught myself how to make canes, a long log of clay designs that could be sliced off thinly and baked. Mostly I stuck the pieces onto glass and baked it that way. Wine glasses, vases, bottles, tea light holders…….you name it. If it could be baked in a toaster oven, it was fair game to be covered in my intricate designs.

I even combined polymer clay with ceramic pieces. They made for some interesting experiments.

At some point along the way I got into word art. I made cards, stickers and magnets out of some of my more popular designs and was quite successful in selling them in my local town.

Eventually, I started to create so much stuff that a friend and I decided to open an art gallery in the town where I lived on the west coast of Canada. We both had our studios on site and we sold art on consignment from over 70 other local artists. We ran it for four years before I decided that I wanted out. Running a business like that was too trapping for me. I needed more freedom to move around.

Little did I know what was coming down the pipes for me at that time.

Combining polymer clay, beads, and micro-macrame was next. I would sit for hours and tie knots, creating unique and interesting pieces of jewelry.

I also used polymer clay to cover wine glasses, chopsticks, Christmas balls, and more.

And I sold stuff in small gift shops around the west coast.

I also had a bout with stained glass. I took one class and was hooked on the colors, mostly. When my instructor decided to close down her studio, I bought her remaining glass and supplies for a steal. This led to many different glass creations. I enjoyed small-scale work and made mostly sun catchers, but these were the two most significant pieces that I made.

At this point, I started to combine polymer clay and glass. I would sandwich it between glass pieces and then sauder the edges together, encasing it. I even added word art to the mix!

In the purchase of my stained glass teacher’s equipment, I also got a small glass fusing kiln in the deal. I spent some time playing with that and made a few pendants here and there.

I made some practical fashion items like shawl pins, buttons and latches out of polymer clay. Plus I started covering light switch covers and selling them. The one below was a custom one. They wanted a jungle theme. The eyes glow in the dark:)

In January of 2017, my partner and I made the decision to sell all of our possessions to head out into the world to travel full-time.

We had everything we needed to be perfectly happy in our house. We had art supplies galore but we yearned for more.

We wanted to learn about the world, and we sure weren’t doing that while living in our tiny 12 000-person town accessible only by ferry on the west coast of Canada.

By October of the same year, we were winging our way to Costa Rica and the start of our nomadic life. Of course, as travelers, we can’t drag an incredible amount of art supplies around with us. So we both turned mostly to digital art.

Oh yeah, did I mention that my partner is an artist as well? Unlike me, he started drawing pretty much as soon as he could hold a pencil and never looked back.

We both started creating digital art as a way to be able to sell products online. We had an iPad Pro with drawing capabilities and I got into making Mandalas and Fractals then would upload them to various online platforms that make print-on-demand textiles.

I sell products in two different Etsy shops and through a few other online platforms that pay me a commission for my sales. It definitely brings in a few dollars for us each month and is mostly how we have sustained ourselves these past 6 years. But honestly, I have been getting less and less interested in these shops as of late.

In 2018 while staying at a hostel in Costa Rica, the owner asked my partner and I to paint him a mural of two scarlett macaws in the jungle in exchange for our accommodation. Neither of us had ever really painted anything serious. We could paint houses, though, so I think that helped. It meant that we, at least, understood paint.

Of course, we were both ‘artists’ so I surmised that we could figure it out.

The painting took us twice as long as we had said that it would, but we got 10 free nights of accommodation out of the deal and it set an idea in motion that still carries us today.

Since that fateful moment in time, we have now painted murals in ten different countries. Recently we returned to Canada for a visit and were thrilled to paint two commissioned pieces in my hometown of Canmore.

I’ve never been afraid to try new things and experience different aspects of life. This has transferred into my art as I constantly am on the lookout for new ideas and am open to unending inspirations.

What some may see as an artist's life of chaos — never focusing in one direction, and always turning corners — I see it as a life of discovery. An unpacking of those things that bring me enjoyment. A constant quest to discover that which interests me.

I couldn’t imagine, 17 years ago, that picking up that singular piece of clay would lead me to where I am today. But here I am.

As exciting as these past years have been, I’m even more excited about the future. One never knows where they will end up in this life, we just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep chasing down those dreams.

Now it’s your turn! If you are reading this and you are an artist, I would love it if you would write your own artist story that we can share in my publication Share Your Creativity.

My co-editor Celeste Wilson has already written hers:

I would love to learn about how you became an artist and how your journey has gone to becoming who you are today. (Please use the topic ‘artist stories’ so it is placed in the appropriate tab on the publication home page.)

Happy creating!

xo Jill

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