Finding art by leaving Toronto
An interview with Jesse Harris
Photo credit: Jesse Harris
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This mural, simply saying "You've changed," is in black and white on a brick building. The statement is short but poignant, recognizing both an acknowledgement of personal growth and acceptance that things are no longer what they once were. View more of Jesse Harris's work on his website.
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Asha Swann 00:02
On this episode of Toronto's Artery, I spoke to an artist who's done what many of us threatened to do whenever there's yet another issue with the TTC: Jesse Harris is an artist who's left Toronto. Now creating out of Ganononque, a town with about 5,000 people just outside of Kingston, Jesse told me about what it's like making art without the hustle and bustle of city life.
Asha Swann 00:26
How long have you been doing art both as a hobby and then also professionally?
Jesse Harris 00:31
Just about forever. I was a kid who was always drawing and at some point maybe stopped and I found some other you know, avenue, but it was something I always had did. And you know, at a certain point, I did go to school and have pursued it at least semi-professionally since 2007, or 2008. I've been painfully shy at certain points in my life, I certainly haven't been shy about, you know, exhibiting work as an adult, or, you know, showing off a great drawing as a child or it's always been a part of my identity, I guess, before I had any idea of what that would mean for my life.
Asha Swann 01:07
How do you find that the art scene compares from Toronto to Gananoque, where you are now?
Jesse Harris 01:13
I really had the sense that basically, things had gotten corporate big time—that there wasn't the same kind of recovery of like a small fry. Not that I think the scene has dried up. But I think here, it's a place where there's 5,000 people and there seems to have been like, conveniently like a huge push for local arts and culture prior to me hitting the scene. It's just a very different place. So if like, artists are way more common, there's lots of happy people who are maybe doing like elevated crafts kind of, or hobby kind of art. It's very nice. Yeah, somehow the population here like in 1991 was 5,200 people—like it's 5,200 people now. If you're not fourth generation, you're not local.
Asha Swann 01:56
There's definitely like a certain type of, I guess, like vibe that you get from small towns where, you know, everyone's like very close knit for many generations, and I've been to Gananoque quite a few times because I grew up in Ottawa. So I've done many day trips, like with my family, it's so beautiful down there, especially down by the water for sure. So I feel like you have like lots of visual inspiration.
Jesse Harris 02:17
My art—like a lot of people—or like maybe old fashioned now, but is like an autobiographical project in some capacity. And you know, there's nothing cooler than like you get a pepper or even you got it at a store, your neighbour shares one with you, and you take the seeds and then you just plant it. And have—not to say like nature takes over, but it's just very cool to be like, "I can grow food." Like, you can just pump water from the dirty creek out back and at least attempt to grow crappy food in our yard. Like just very much wanting a different kind of inputs for myself, and I guess for my kids, too. Where like—Toronto will always be there. I have family and friends there. It's really not so far away. We're not you know, so far from Ottawa. Though I personally never really embraced online, I don't necessarily feel so disconnected. I think I never was like a real joiner. But I really do believe in community, I really do. Whether it's a place for visual arts or any kind of literary scene, or punk rock scene, or basically any kinda like—guess I feel like someone's creative work should be a great place to, you know, discuss any of that. And any limits to that. Or, coming to a place where I have tons of friends who are in their 80s, the last thing I ever want to be is, like, older and not—and discouraging of anyone who is younger. You hear awful cliches like, you know, "These kids today," or "You've changed." It's easy to become, you know, a kind of parody of like a cartoon. [It] wasn't like, specifically, "I need to remove myself from the Toronto art scene," basically nothing to do with that. But for me, it's been positive to embrace something pretty unfamiliar to me as someone who spent lots of time, like, traipsing through alleyways.
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Affirmations in ROW DTLA
Image source: Anna Sullivan via Unsplash
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This mural, created by Leta Sobierajski for ROW DTLA in California, shows a simplistic affirmation. Similar to Jesse Harris's "YOU'VE CHANGED," Leta Sobierajski's "YOU ARE GOING TO BE FINE" can act as a message of relief for the viewer.
Asha Swann 04:04
Yeah, for sure. I can definitely see that. How do you find that the COVID lockdown affected your creative process?
Jesse Harris 04:11
For me, I had a small biz where I'd make so many things for other people, including lots of artists, lots of art students, galleries, small museum, kind of thing. So in, whatever it was—March of 2020, I feel like my biz just disappeared within a week's time and though [it] was maybe more of a just a shock, you know, because I was very much doing work in service of other people. It was just time to go dormant. And you know, prior to that, I think there was also like a lot of exciting energy for progressive cultural change, and I had no interest in like flooding the zone with my bullshit. I had started exhibiting artwork straight out of school, and one opportunity had led to another to another into another, and I don't know how much of an autonomous studio practice I have really had. [It] was just, you know, you say yes to the best opportunities, and hopefully you're gonna stay inspired. And so ultimately, I think it's a very good thing to just like stop. I'm very privileged to have a break and spend so much time with my kids, who are now six and three.
Asha Swann 05:16
Do you think that there's anything that you would — like any advice that you would give to other artists who are thinking of maybe like leaving the big city and going somewhere else to do their craft?
Jesse Harris 05:28
My wife is from Brockville, Ontario. And so over 15 plus years, we'd spent a lot of time coming to this region, we would visit Gananoque to go to the flea market that happens to be on my street now. And you know, very much like spend time in like reasonably unspoiled nature. In a way, even if it was a leap of faith, we kind of knew where the place we could go. So I say all that — it's not like there's nothing here or there's nothing in like a smaller center or, you know, whether it's privacy or real room, or there is room for anything, there's tons of culture. I have moved to a strange place and made friends with people who are like, all the food they eat they catch out of the river. But so many people I had made great friendships with and spent my life whether in Toronto or beyond, or people who had basically escaped, they needed to come and find people like themselves or getting support for their creative endeavor. It wasn't just that they like, want to be a star, or just that's where the industry was, or that was where, you know, there's any hope of, you know, professionalizing or, you know, getting great education, or it's hard to imagine, again, with like a younger person who might have a different way of looking at things.
It's just hard to imagine how you differentiate yourself and like, build some kind of excitement around what you're doing. You know, while you're learning within a place that's it's like so self-obsessed. And it's just a personal thing, but no one would have ever in my life expected that — including my own family — that I would leave Toronto. And they'd make fun of me and say it was Mr. Toronto because I had, whatever, like some mental map of like, "Here's the best five places to get a beef patty," and I'll sample that daily if I can on, like, maybe one TTC token. All of this said, it's like there's, [I'm] sure there's all kinds of public art in Toronto I haven't seen— some been installed, or about to be. Hopefully it's not all just through this silly machine of decorate for a developer. I can just see how that really alienate anyone starting out.
Asha Swann 07:36
This has been an episode of Toronto's Artery, a podcast about art in the heart of the city. For more episodes and does the math of the art we discussed in today's episode, head to torontosartery.com
Thanks for listening!