Jessie McClennan Paintings December 2021

This exhibition was a hard thing to achieve. I am usually really creative and always creating art. The last three years have been like pulling teeth. I have had to justify time spent on creative pursuits. Everything else became more and more important. If it wasn’t for the few people around me encouraging me creatively and providing spaces and times for me to create, none of this would have been expressed. My friend Jo Draisma and her fun art classes, the Friday print group in Trafalgar and Janet Wyllie who has been picking up my loose ends and made the finishing of “Pat, the dog” sculpture in Yarragon possible.

I had given up on my sense of self. I felt exhausted, guilty, not trusting what I know as true, feeling worthless, isolated, fearful, ashamed, frustrated, betrayed, doubtful, embarrassed, overwhelmed, grief and not knowing who to trust. I  froze.

My works you see today are of my family whom I love with all my heart and will do almost anything for. The colourful paintings are a reminder of the happy-go-lucky person inside that I need to nurse and coax out again.