When it comes to Jess Stanley’s art, being authentic to herself has been the key ingredient in finding her niche. Although she’s been creating since childhood, completed art school at the College of New Caledonia, and receives mentorship from her high school art teacher, Stanley’s journey to becoming the illustrator, painter, and animator she is today was not a straight shot. 

If you look at her current work, Stanley explores art as activism. “I’m really passionate about our environment and human rights. We’re living in a crazy time and it’s all connected,” says Stanley. She believes that creating inclusive messaging through images can create change and bring people together.

Playing with that theme, she likes to explore the notion that there are universal forces outside of our initial perceptions, revealing concepts all humans can relate to and understand. Her work is heavily influenced by fantasy, folklore, and sci-fi motifs that illuminate the mystical element of nature and humans. In one of her illustrations, the knots of a birch tree trunk look more like eyes. In another, she paints a human as a cactus blooming its own flowers. Both pieces evoke her belief that ‘it’s all connected,’ providing imagery to explain our impact amongst each other and on this earth.

Sometimes, she also likes to create pieces that reflect the simple joys in her life, like her British Shorthair cat, George Bailey, where she embellishes him with little fangs. Or when she shows her love for running marathons and eating juicy orange slices as a refreshing reward.

Stanley has always been interested in making art “accessible and approachable” since moving from Vanderhoof, BC to Vancouver 10 years ago and moving around the city a few times since then. Her interest in limiting the tools she uses in her art is a way of sending a message that anyone can create if they have a “pen or pencil and a piece of paper”.

Her values in inclusive art-making took time to come to the forefront of her work. After completing her art program, Stanley found that she was creating art she felt others wanted to see instead of art she loved. In an attempt to be labelled as a ‘true’ artist, her passions began to dwindle, and for some time, she stopped making art altogether.

Thankfully, this time away from her craft gave Stanley the chance to shed external expectations and develop into the artist we see today. Stanley says that around 2 years ago, “there was one day where I was like, I feel like I can pick up a pencil again, and there was no one telling me what to do with it!” Now, she creates for her—making her art that much more powerful.

Among her recent projects, she did her first mural in her hometown high school. At 55 feet long and 12 feet tall, the brick layered mural was an enormous feat (no pun intended) for her first time. “It was bonkers! You had to paint in between each brick. And it wasn’t like little tiny divots, it was 90-degree angles on both sides, and you had to paint it, or else it would just look horrible,” she recalls. This year, she hopes to “do a flat wall mural,” she laughs. Apart from working on new ink illustrations that she’s “jazzed about,” she’d also love to do illustrations for a fantasy or sci-fi book.

Stanley credits the switch she took to solely making art authentic to her as the reason she’s been receiving newfound recognition in the Vancouver art scene. It took time, exploration, and a little bit of faith in the process to create her own mould. “You don’t need to fit into the idea of what an artist is. You don’t need to have a fancy studio or do crazy big things; you can just have a pencil case,” she says. Stanley provides a refreshing and inclusive take on what really makes an artist, and in her eyes, anyone can be one.

 Find Stanley on Instagram and visit her website.