Whenever someone walks into AFP NOHO for the first time, they would notice the artwork on the walls.  That artwork is the work of local artist Arielle Jessop, who also says that art a form of communication.  

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When she moved to Montreal to attend Concordia University, she was a French major and that was when she saw the connection between language and art.  “By learning language and then using visual language to connect with people all of that has kind of influenced my work. When I do landscape work, it’s sort of connection to place and really seeing a place through a different lens rather than kind of just being in it.”  

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As an example, she explains that people have a real connection to place with her landscape work.  She notices while doing on-site work, people want to talk about it with her, “A lot of the work I sell in the valley is of the valley and people will want to talk about their connection to their home.  And I think that can be a really nice communication between the artist and viewer. It’s connection to place and home and memory.”

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She describes abstract work as a bit more behind the scenes.  For example, someone might have an emotional reaction to something.  Arielle described a conversation with a woman where the woman saw angels in the painting when there was no intention of angels being in the painting.  “It’s sort of a way to dig deeper, whether it makes someone feel sad or nostalgic or brings them joy. They may not be able to articulate exactly what emotion they feel.”

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When she was asked about what’s next, she really explained what her art process is, “Whenever I’m doing a piece, there are parts of it I really love and I kind of take that and put it in my pocket and save it.  And there are pieces where I’m like ‘oh, I’m so close to getting that light perfect, but it’s not quite there- that’s almost how I see it in my mind.’ but it doesn’t quite make it so I’ll kind of take that information and put it in my pocket, and then when I go to the next piece I use all that I just learned and apply it to the new work.”  “ I’ll look at what I wanted to do a little bit differently or sometimes I’ll just do a painting, I’ll hate it and still try to see it as a process and learn from it.”

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AFP is so glad to have Arielle’s work at AFP NOHO, visit Arielle’s website to learn more about her and her work in the valley and don’t forget to watch out for a new episode of DragonFly TV.

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-Alex LaMarche

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