About Art By Jamie
An image of Jamie Painting
An image of Jamie Painting
I was born in Bangor, Wales. I had previously lived in Llandudno and then my family moved to Wrexham when I was 2 years old. I have lived in Wrexham for most of my life. My mother was a stay-at-home mum and my father worked in factories and recycling centres. My parents were heavy drug users, and my father was an alcoholic. My childhood was traumatic and abusive, which contributed to a significant amount of my mental health problems. At 13 years old, my father left the home. My older brother turned to me to take his anger out on. At 17 years old, I was made homeless by my mother, I lived in a homeless hostel for 2 years. I was diagnosed with ADHD, Clinical Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia, Anorexia and C-PTSD at 16 years old. At 20 years old, my mother and my grandma passed away within a month of each other. Although my background is inherently negative, there are positives. As a child, I would stay with my grandma for weekends, she would take me to her Yoga classes; She was a Yoga instructor and a hypnotherapist. This was a time for me to get away and relax. As a child, we would visit my Nain and Taid in Llandudno, we would go to the beach and the pier.
I studied Art and Design throughout high school and college. I received my Foundation Diploma in Fine Art at college before attending university. I am now in my third year, studying Fine Art in Glyndwr University. Throughout high school, my interest in art was primarily drawing still life. During my A-Levels in college, I experimented with a variety of materials, including acrylic paint, drawing, wire, batik, monoprint, intaglio, screen-printing, and pottery. During my foundation, I spent my time doing screen-printing and photography. My love for painting still life began in my second year of university after my mother passed away, it was the only effective coping mechanism that I had. Painting allowed me to process my emotions and grieve in a healthy way. Before this time, I did not understand why others enjoyed painting still life, however, I had the realisation that the objects can have meaning. They can relate to important people or events that have happened. I have always had an attachment to objects because of their sentimental value, this started from an early age with teddies, this has now grown into sentimental value for objects that I have been given by significant people in my life or objects associated with the activities that I enjoy. I like to explore the types of backgrounds that I can use in a still life to create a narrative or express a specific time within my life.
I studied at Coleg Cambria for my foundation Diploma, this allowed me to exhibit my work for the final major project. I am currently studying at Glyndwr University for my Fine Art Degree. I volunteer for State of Mind as a peer mentor, I help support workers during group support sessions and art sessions. I have a Podcast with a close friend where we talk about our education experiences and our art processes, among many other things.
Currently, I am putting together my degree show to exhibit my work. I am planning to start a commission to produce artwork for board games that my friend is making in their free time. This is something that I will begin doing after my degree show. I am still volunteering and filming podcast episodes once a week. I have a video that I have made posted on the Platform website, talking about my experiences of mental health through an analogy using Jenga blocks.
digital drawing of jamie doing yoga