The thing about Jessica Lines’ artwork is that “it’s just an extension of me”.
“When you see me as a person, you should be able to know my art. I just embody colour as a walking, living canvas,” the artist told The Profile.
“I think I started my journey with art maybe about nine years ago.
“It’s just been a tool that I’ve used for my own healing, but also it’s morphed into something else. “And it just brings me joy, it brings me peace and it just flows out of me,” she said.
It’s what makes the month of March a significant milestone for Jessica with her first art exhibition in more than six years: Divine Creativity.
Until the end of the month, Jessica’s mosaics, acrylic paintings, ink work, mixed media art and more would be on display in the Crosby Gallery of the Paeroa Arts Centre daily from 10am to 3pm when the flags are out.
The “natural born entertainer”, who loved to sing, dance and play music, said her source of inspiration boiled down to the fact she was a naturally spiritual person.
“I guess my brand is Divine Creativity, where heaven and earth meet. Everything that I create comes out of that meeting point where heaven and earth meet.”
It wasn’t a small thing for Jessica to put her art back out there again.
“This is my heart exposed to the world, and it’s scary, but you’re putting yourself out there and sharing a bit of my inner world,” she said. “There were times when I thought that I’d attempt to do an exhibition and due to my physical and mental health I just couldn’t make it. But finally here I am and I think when I look around I can just see the determination and strength that it took to get here and I’m happy with what I’ve done.”
“A lot of my work is based on my life’s journey. I try and create work that’s bright, colourful and overflowing in life. People can look at it and almost step into it as if they’re stepping into another world,” she said. Mosaic art was something Jessica said she loved because “you take something broken and discarded and you turn it into something beautiful”.
“I’ve had quite a journey of brokenness in my life. But I guess mosaics has been a bit of a therapy for me in which out of that, a treasure can form, like someone’s rubbish becomes someone’s treasure. Almost a bit like overcoming brokenness into wholeness,” she said.
Jessica’s journey led her to a diploma in art therapy as well, she said, and hoped to one day offer some wellness art classes in the community.
“Some of these works have been birthed out of works that I’ve done in my art therapy and then I’ve expanded them and put them on canvas.” It was important to Jessica that people could connect with her art through the exhibition.
“I want people, when they just come here, to just enjoy and sit and be with my art and let the pieces love on them really [and] bring joy, bring hope and life.”
DETAILS: Visit Jessica Lines’ Divine Creativity art exhibition at Paeroa Arts Centre, 109 Normanby Rd, Paeroa, from 10am to 3pm daily until the end of March. Follow Paeroa Society of Arts on Facebook for updates.
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
