My Story
So this is kinda long, but it’s interesting enough to read. Go for it!
Once upon a time, Life as I had known it came to a complete halt in 2021 when a vertebrae in my neck was surgically removed. Seriously. Who even knew that was possible?!?
Before this, life was a movie; you name it, I’ve done it. Wilderness Adventures, Disaster Response, The United Nations, Endangered Species. Tree planting. Skiing, diving, horseback riding….If I listed all of it, would you believe me? Maybe, maybe not.
I lost that life.
Now my life is defined by living with a spinal cord injury, and being told that I will not get better.
Yeah well, I’m not buying it. I’m not taking my death like a sheep!
I was blessed with talent and grit and I’m going to use it.
Art is playing a big part in my healing. The level of inspiration within me has blossomed. I have so many works of art aching to be created – far more than my body and time will allow.
I’m a prolific creator.
Right now, I’m exploring the recent discovery of my ability to paint with my right and left hands. This ambidextrous art is so exiting for me to exercise my brain and to observe how i interpret colour and space differently using the different lobes of my mind. I’ve got a climate change series coming up too.
I’m sharing my story on Instagram, so i invite you to follow me there and see where this journey takes us.
My ancient HISTORY
MARION DRYSDALE AWARD, 1990
There was a contest for the Province of Ontario titled, ‘express yourself’ that I won, after illustrating the earth breaking apart by industrialization and pollution. It was titled “Hatching Destruction”. I was a teenager then.
MURALS 1989 & 2009
As a teenager, I painted a mural of endangered species on a wall in my high school, where it stayed for 20 years before being painted over. The mural featured a quote by Dian fossey:
“When you realize the value of all life, you tend to dwell less on what has passed and concentrate more on the preservation of the future”.
The mural led to being ‘discovered’ by Kenyan wildlife commissioner, Sir Dr Richard Leakey, My artwork was put on the communication materials and t-shirts for his international lecture series “Elephants: The Deciding Decade”. I got a chance to speak on stage with him and other scientists who were heroes for a geek like me, like Ian and Oriya Douglas Hamilton and Ian Redmond. So-much-fun!
YORK FINE ARTS
My application to York Fine Arts was competitive, and I enrolled as a visual arts student. After one year, I transferred to Environmental Studies thinking my passion for issues was more important than making fine art.
Sustainability meets art
For most of my career, my creative energy was focused on designing and leading sustainable development programmes. During that time I published several articles in magazines like ‘All At Sea’ and Grenada’s ‘Marine and Yachting Magazine’ as well as producing a weekly opinion column for the ‘Grenada Advocate’ newspaper.
After facilitating a consensus to protect the critically endangered grenada dove, the ‘mt. Hartman consensus’ paired developed goal with sustainable principles successfully. It as published as a case study in the global conservation gateway, and I was honoured to be asked to paint a portrait of the critically endangered Grenada Dove [based on one of the only decent photographs of the critically endangered species that existed at the time. the painting was donated by the Minister of the Environment, Grenada to the Museum. I have no idea where it’s hanging, but it can be seen online here: https://www.google.ca/search?q=Jennifer+alexis+grenada+dove.&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-ca&client=safari#vhid=6DAG_t_tJvsW2M&vssid=l
Campaigns
I didn’t have much time after that for art. My campaign work was taking off. I was greening the economy of Grenada, helping to set up the Caribbean biodiversity fund, and designing a successful campaign to protect sharks (protections were approved by the government of Grenada in 2016).
Injury
….and then after that, during a conference where we were announcing the new shark protections at an international conference, i broke my back in a freak accident. L4-5 was fubared. During my convalescence i composed music, wrote children’s books and painted for fun.
Canada
Now we live in canada, where i was born. I am someone who is inspired by nature, so a friend invited me to move up to muskoka! And here we have been since. I was planning to go into education next, but the universe had other plans for me.
Having a spinal cord injury sucks and I don’t relish the slow-motion journey into a wheelchair but i gotta say…..reconnecting with the artist i was as a youth has made me happier than I’ve ever been.