Interview with Jilly Frances (JF) by Isha Sharma (IS)
IS: What does art mean to you and where does your everyday inspiration come from?
JF: Being an artist is a way of seeing, a way of being in the world. My work all grows out of paying attention. Shadows, clouds, the shape of a stone, the colour of a flower, the curve of a stick. I don’t often need to go looking for inspiration, I find it’s right in front of my nose all along – while I listen to music, slice a tomato, watch a film, go for a quiet walk outside, or observe my children get curious about the world. It’s often in the minutia where I am reminded that even humble traces of daily life can become points of entry into larger existential questions. I let nature romance me in this way, and it has continued to.
IS: You are a poet, artist, ink maker, and painter. How do you navigate between these different roles?
JF: To me, each of my collections use materiality to explore different sides of the same themes. A constellation of art forms that work together to outline the same shape. In all of these disciplines, I feel that I am a vessel for the work to come through. Penning poems from experiences I witness, making ink from and with the ground, painting in collaboration with the pouring rain. In all of this work, there is a fragility and persistence held in tandem.
When I look at the evolution of these collections, from Sky, to Ground, to Rain, I see an unfurling fist, an opening hand. I can look back and see myself surrendering to art more and more. In each series, I am collaborating with elements that are very dynamic – capturing the fleeting skies, organic collisions of colour from the ground, and of course the unpredictable flow of rain. I think this is where the friction lies and this is the journey for me (probably for many of us) – to move from a clenched fist to an open hand. Balancing surrender and intention always, and finding a rhythm within it.
IS: You recently had an exhibition Like a Mirror, Like a Mother, Like a Memory for Mother’s Day. What was the experience like?
JF: The exhibition featured three of my collections – Rain, Ground, and Sky.
The Sky series, where I paint the sky every day, holds a moment in time, connecting us to memory. The sky is a witness to our days and it offers a quiet way of remembering. I think of the etymology of the word ‘re-member’, to make oneself a member again, to re-connect to a moment, to re-connect to yourself. The skies do this for me, and I think the skies do this for many of us. Like a Memory.
Jilly Frances, Skies, 2022
The Ground series comes next, an exploration of natural or found materials from the ground – a collaboration with Mother Nature. I make my own inks from my daily environments, collecting elements from a walk home (sumac, elderberries, a fallen walnut). While these mundane materials can be completely ignorable to most of us, I work with them until they become quite expansive, transcending what they once were. There is a vulnerability that the materials have with one another, changing each other and transforming into new galaxies. A lot like us, always becoming. New colours are born from the different elements that touch one another – a love letter to creation. Like a Mother.
Jilly Frances, Groundlings
In my Rain series, the paintings are created outdoors in and with the falling rain. This collection embraces the unpredictable and finds a rhythm within it. There is a delicate dance between what my hand is doing and what the sky wants to do, a tension that mirrors what it’s like to be a person. In my work, there is a sensitive and sometimes difficult friction between surrender and intention, always. And this is a reflection of the human condition. Like a Mirror.
Jilly Frances in front of her Rain series in her studio
IS: How did you feel about the reception of your series by people? Has there been a specific compliment or word of praise that has stayed with you?
JF: The Rain and the Ground series are often very calming for people. I believe there is an inner recognition for folks that the paintings and the people witnessing them are made of the same stuff – nature, ground, water. There is a vulnerability to the materiality that I think also feels very human, and people tend to feel this.
As for the Sky series, it began as just a personal practice, I had no intention of sharing it. Once I released a full year of these daily sky paintings at the end of 2020, the surprise gift in it was that it grew to include everyone else’s moments. Collectors will resonate with particular dates to mark the day a wedding took place, the day a baby was born, a loved one passed, a first kiss, a story of personal struggle, an anniversary, or to mark a new chapter. Getting to hold these intimate stories and memories is an honour and I am endlessly in awe of humanity. There is something so universal about our resonance with the sky – the way it can mirror our mood, hold a feeling, make a quiet promise. This body of work is an offering, giving permission for folks to feel their feelings.
Jilly Frances, Year of Skies, 2020
IS: In the age of digitisation and AI, do you feel that art is undergoing a metamorphosis?
JF: As the world becomes more and more digital and technological and two dimensional, I find myself deeply desiring the texture and imperfections of nature, it’s where the soul is. With more and more soulless art and design in the wake of AI, I yearn for it, and so I think that’s what draws me in. In the same way, I also think that people are hungry for things that have some fingerprints on them. On a spiritual level, maybe without being able to name it, I notice that people are drawn to that touch-of-hand creation. As much as AI poses threats and problems, I also think that it means that artwork made from human hands, human hearts, human minds, is all the more valuable. More valuable than ever before.IS: What is your message to mothers who are balancing both homes and careers? How should they prioritize?
IS: What advice would you like to give to young artists looking to establish their careers?
JF: I’m not big on advice, I truly think every path is different. Keep consistency in making your work, whether it is your career or on the side of another job, it doesn’t matter, don’t stop making things. Keep company, find other creatives who you can bounce your ideas off of, tighten your ideas, or loosen them and break them wide open. Keep courage, it’s a terrifying thing to make art and put it out into the world. Continue to know yourself more and more, and the honesty and vulnerability of who you are or what you have to say will come through in the work. Trust that the world needs what you have to offer.
Text and photo: Isha Sharma
*Exhibition information: Jilly Frances, Like a Mirror, Like a Mother, Like a Memory, May 8 – 10, 2026, Kikospace, 2104 Dundas St W, Toronto. Gallery hours: Fri 12 – 3pm, Sat & Sun 10am – 3pm.