epilogue. – Natalie Rae Jeanson

Instagram: @natalie.raae /@natalieraeart
Facebook: Natalie Rae
Email: natalieraeart@gmail.com

Natalie Jeanson is a graphic designer and mixed media artist from Woodstock. She attended Trinity College School, then studied Studio Art at Concordia University before transferring to the University of Waterloo, where she is completing her undergraduate degree. Her art practice addresses myriad themes such as environmental awareness, resistance of institutions and power, as well as relational aesthetics. She works with a range of media including digital application, lighting and installation, vinyl and printmaking, fibers and textiles, collage and ink, marker drawings, watercolour, and artist books. Natalie has received awards of distinction for her artwork, most notably from the United States College Board for outstanding work in Advanced Placement Studio Art. Natalie values family, connection, and growth. She constantly tries to learn new things, and experiments with many different mediums and techniques. Her work is inspired by research, new artists, her family, and her day-to-day life. Natalie hopes to inspire others as well as motivate herself by creating a safe place in art for all.

Artist Statement

Graphic design is approachable and accessible, invisibly in our everyday lives. It is all around us and it shows how we are impacted and touched by our social environments. Graphic design and fine art connect us on many levels: emotionally, mentally, and physically. I want to bring this subconscious connection to realization in everyday life, into an exhibition setting to create a conscious awareness and intentional form and hope for connection. Charlie Gere’s quote brought perspective to my work with how he links everyday digital experiences with our senses—how digital media, despite the assumption that data is cold, can be felt and accepted.  

“Digital media attempts to present us with visual and other experiences far from discrete. They are part of a fluid stream, a flow, as a continuum of data, with which we interact and become a part of, a milieu. Digital media encourages seamless connectivity. The more distant and dematerialized our media is, the more it seems to engage interactivity and to encourage a sense of touching and grasping.” (Gere, 2017)

My project aim is to resist assumptions and traditions, and the focus of this work investigates how relational aesthetics can create seamless inter-connectivity between the viewer, the medium, the art, and myself.  When making the work I questioned how others and myself look at fine art? How do we look at street art, street culture, and publications/media? How are we impacted by graphic design? How are we impacted by fine art? Lastly, how can I connect and relate all these experiences of art? I aim to find a space between the fine art and digital design realms to bring about an ambiguous environment that allows me to connect to my viewer through the work. During the exhibition this process will be investigative and will allow me to see how people interact with this work, and how that understanding can relate to my future practice in relational aesthetics.

This body of work employs book-like formats to engage with personal reflections and satirical narratives of the everyday. The goal was to print and distribute aspects of this project in many different sizes: from movie posters and signage to a wall mural (typically found in the public realm), personal publications like a book and to micro publications and inexpensive multiples such as t-shirts, bags, stickers, and cards. Most of these works have been created with vinyl. I have also made a punch needle carpet piece as well. Combining graphic design and illustrative storytelling I pay homage to my everyday life, family (most importantly my brothers) and friends. Anecdotes that engage with humour, ambiguity, and strangeness of life with the overall aim to connect, are core themes running throughout. I begin on paper making simple black and white illustrative doodles based on reference photos then transferred into digital images. My process employs the standards of desktop publishing (8½’’ x 11’’ paper), allowing me to easily sort, edit, and rearrange to choose which pieces will be used in a strategic way for the overall installation. I see my work as a kind of conversation between myself and the viewer, a shared experience and related illustrations that can make you feel. My hope is to continue to push up against normative values within this work.

References

Charlie Gere, “Digital Art and Visual Culture” in The Handbook of Visual Culture Ian Heywood, Barry Sandywell, eds. (London: Bloomsbury, 2017). 

Interview Questions

What aspects of your life inspire your art?

When growing up I traveled and lived in different places and was constantly inspired by my brothers’ artistic talents; they turned their passions into a reality and profession. They showed me how it’s possible to make a name for yourself in art. There may be ups and downs, but it’s that growth that makes you into the artist that you are! 

Playing basketball made me fall in love with sneaker culture. This began to entrench me into street art culture, pop art, street fashion, graffiti, design, and illustration. Music also influenced these discourses, which hooked me on to artistic design and the doodle style of art that I do now. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience the entertainment and the rich and fruitful art world in Montreal when living there for two years. It was different from most cities, with a lot of artists doing radical, new, and advanced work. I feel fortunate to be able to be around them, learn from them, and just hear their stories and experiences. These local multifaceted businesses/galleries in Montreal inspired me to investigate the gap between fine art and design, and how to merge these worlds. There is a different type of consumption in Montreal. The consumption wasn’t for the label or brand, rather consuming for the sake of the culture, with the feeling of the connections, experiences, and meanings behind the product, brand, or company. Everything is interconnected so I’m inspired to make work that people want to consume because of those reasons.

What are your preferred mediums and why are you drawn to them?

I originally started in mixed media. I love working with ink, watercolour, pencil, and coloured pencil. I was originally drawn to these techniques in high school when I learned how to image transfer, experimenting with types of media, paper, texture. The artist Stikki Peaches really drew me to this element of texture, collage, drawing, and colour.

I really began to push my medium choices and art further when I saw Ed Pien’s work with Concordia in Montreal for the first time. His installations of mixed media, his ability to create lots of different works but maintain the same style throughout, was a real eye opener. He helped solve my problem of not knowing how to use all my skills and different studio interests to maintain coherence in my work, instead of using multifaceted elements of art together.

I am a fast-working artist; I can’t sit with a piece for too long or I lose my “mojo.” Doing a piece of work in one shot really pushes my feelings and urges in association with decision-making, mark-making and choice of medium, from performance art to printmaking. I’ve never been able to settle for one medium and style because I always love experimenting and growing.

Graphic design is where I ended up. I was taught Adobe software at the beginning of high school, and with the inspiration of my brothers I really started falling in love with the medium! When at Concordia before I transferred, I took screen printing. That really showed me how graphic design can be used to create both digitally and in the studio. Design doesn’t need to be stuck in a screen, billboard, or website. I love doodling so I have tried merging this style with the graphic design applications, experimenting with colour, and text, and mark-making. In the beginning I wouldn’t say I was inspired by anything; I was more experimenting with design, and I really fell in love. After becoming attached to the design medium I started to do more research of artists. That’s when I really started growing and developing my craft. With being in studio art for university I think that influenced that merge of going beyond just being a digital-based artist and made me want to experiment publications and different media, especially in this thesis work.

Where do you see yourself in the future? How do you see your art practice evolving?

My hope is to eventually have my own multifaceted design business, like screen-printed clothing, décor work, woodworking, posters, cards, logos, possibly custom work for people. I hope to sell my personal art and keep creating things for myself and possibly share with others through exhibitions or shows. I would love to help other companies with content creation, design, creative directing or even brand development. As an artist, I just want to keep creating. It’s what makes me happy. No matter what I do I will keep being creative. One thing I have learned is that you can plan all you want, but sometimes it will just change, especially when you least expect it, so go with the flow especially as an artist and network and let the future happen! I am all about connection, growth, and learning, so hopefully I can create this professional art space and practice. I would love to travel and do some residencies too. I see my personal practice expanding from this thesis work I am doing now. My hope is to continue to work in the realm of relational aesthetics and see how people interact and engage with art. I also want to start experimenting with vinyl more too: I have lots of ideas. I want to continue these little investigations and possibly create some art books that can connect others too!

I would love to create a collective studio space of friends and those I am inspired by (wherever I end up living). Being in a safe place to create is really important to me, and I want to share that space with others, especially the strong women artists in my life.

What do you want people to know about you as an artist?

I am really compassionate and sensitive. My work always has deeper connections whether it is literal or not. I am creative, but sometimes my creation doesn’t just come from my head. It is created from experience, feelings, and environment. I try to be as authentic as I can be as a person and artist! When it comes to art, I think the best thing you can do is trial and error and learn from the people/artists around you, everything is connected. I do a lot of research—everything I do is inspired by a theory, studies, or something else. I also try to learn from artists, especially ones that I am drawn to (that list is long). I also go to old bookstores and try to find cool art books for inspiration (I have a lot of books).

There will be ups and downs in life and art but it’s safe to know that if you surround yourself with the ones that love you and, in my case, I am blessed to have “my peoples,” “my rocks” for support. Inspiration comes from everything, especially the little things…. It’s important to say that my growth and strength has got me to where I am now but a big tribute and influence of that goes to my family, especially my brothers, both sets of parents, and my lil’ sisters. The advice my brothers give has really stuck and inspired a lot of what I do now and the drive that I have, knowing “art life” is possible.

What is the most significant thing you will take away from your Fine Arts studies?

Wow, that is an emotional question for sure. I suffered a lot with imposter syndrome and feeling like I didn’t know what I wanted or hadn’t gotten myself together like everyone else. In retrospect everyone is struggling and going at their own pace. I didn’t let imposter syndrome dictate the future, instead, I focused on learning and growing and discovering that things will come with time. You may not have a solid plan for what you want to do after university and that is normal and okay. The journey to where you want to be may change in the process too! I tried to view school as a foundation, I created a moulding for myself to evolve for when I enter the art world. I used that knowledge to help myself grow and it allows me to create from the influences outside of school too. Life and the art world are all around us and we consume it every day and it influences us whether we know it or not. I learned to be aware of my environment and use it as a tool to grow. It is daily learning and development, so I must be aware of it.

The most significant take away from school is time. It goes by so fast, so take it all in while you can, love every little thing, and try and learn as much as you can till you can’t anymore. With transferring Universities halfway through my degree and the world transferring online due to COVID, I missed out on two years of studio time, and I learned from home (which I did learn a lot too). You never realize how precious the University and art communities are till you can’t have them! My hurdle was I had never once been to UW campus since I transferred and due to covid, but I was an online UW student up until now. Stepping back into the studio this year in a new community and school for the first time since 2019/20 and to only have two months in the studio before I finish my program was bittersweet. It was emotional and special but that little feeling I felt wandering through the empty studio made me think how much you must hold on to the time, memories, and experiences. Take in the community, the friends, the critiques, the professors that teach you the most because those connections will stick when you enter the art world, and help you grow beyond the classroom. Those memories are the ones that helped shape me into the artist I am today. Use the studios and resources from the university as much as possible, take the time to experiment in disciplines you never thought you would when resources are high because you may not have the opportunity or financial ability to try and take these risks once you graduate. Get uncomfortable! Also have fun….