Jennifer Marr
Painter
Lives and works in Toronto, Canada

A self-taught artist, Jennifer uses art to heal and get in touch with her emotions. She was
diagnosed with cancer back in 2017. It wasn’t a terminal diagnosis, but it was enough to cause some anxiety. These pieces represent a sampling of what came spilling out as she cycled through a handful of SSRI medications prescribed to her over the course of 2 years.
Isolate: An abstract depiction of what she imagined the cancer to look like. Facing her diagnosis was an isolating experience, which she hopes to have captured in this piece.
Emerge: A move beyond fear and anxiety to a mindset of gratefulness and the knowledge that she could choose the perspective from which she viewed her situation.
Hope: An even deeper commitment to this new persective. She began to feel a spiritual
connection that had been missing for years. The multi-directional aspect of this piece is a nod to the “choice” she refers to in Emerge. It’s also intended to evoke thoughts of the cosmos and what lies beyond.
Feel: Is a celebration. It signals a return to earth and is intended to show that the fuzzy, feel-good aspects of being alive can exist in and around the ever-present void of existential dread.
Forgive: Depicts the overall effects that this healing journey had on the artist’s psyche. The
experience made her re-evaluate the relationship she had with her body. It’s a self-apology.
Each of these pieces was created through a combination of drawing and/or digital manipulation. The artist printed them on velvet and linen-cotton-canvas to add an additional sensory dimension into the set