Jen Kershaw

Jennifer Kershaw was born in Scarborough, Ontario and lived in Milton after her father’s untimely passing in the ’90s. In 2004, she earned her B.A. Honours degree from the University of Guelph, majoring in Studio Art with a minor in Art History. It was there in the paint spattered studios of Zavitz Hall, that she began to specialize in painting under Monica Tap, and had her revelatory collision with the work of Mary Pratt.

Soon after graduating, Jennifer and her husband fled the GTA for Ottawa in a battered U-haul with her beloved ’93 Pontiac Sunbird in tow and pet goldfish sloshing all the way. She has lived and painted in Ottawa ever since, where she happily does not get routinely stuck in 401 traffic.

“I have always been inspired by the transformative power of light; how it can lift up the everyday into something jewel-like and extraordinary, while its transience inspires me to never take things for granted, to enjoy, savour, and celebrate what we have while it lasts, because as a wise man once said, ‘tomorrow never knows.’ My latest body of work is more specifically about memory – certain smells, flavours, songs, and physical items that remind me of people, places, or times in my life. In painting the personal, I hope I can touch upon the universal.”