About Zinnia

I Am Here Now (after Monet)
self-portrait, performance-based photograph, 2026

Welcome to Studio Zinnia.

I am Zinnia, the artist behind Studio Zinnia. 

Since I was a child, I have loved gifting people things. I would make an illustrated note, string together some wildflowers, write a short story, or, perhaps, decorate a box for worries to be set down. I would leave these offerings somewhere for the unsuspecting recipient to discover and watch them glow when they found them. Looking back, I think what I really loved was the invitation for a person to feel seen.

That intention continues through my work today.

One of my earliest experiences of art as recognition came in Grade 4, when I watched a documentary about Emily Carr. Until then, the art I had encountered and understood as significant was largely European. Her paintings showed me that the landscape I knew in the Pacific Northwest was worthy of art. Although I did not realize this at the time, she also showed me the possibility of a woman trusting her own creative vision.

Years later, after my father died, I felt compelled to paint women. Painting became a way to reclaim my voice and explore what it means to belong fully to oneself. Through this process, I began to recognize my own experience as part of a wider awakening in women.

I have become particularly interested in questions of voice, identity and sovereignty as a woman. I think about what is truly our own, what we inherit or absorb from the world around us, and what happens when we stop seeking permission and trust our own ways of knowing.

That trust shapes how I work. I follow connections between seemingly disparate ideas. I think of these connections as portals. I find them in a line of poetry, while wandering through the forest or floating in the ocean. They also appear between sentences and in the pause within a conversation. They connect my inner experience to the world around me, offering glimpses of what I want to articulate and bring into form through my work.

Painting is deeply physical and intimate for me. I move as I paint, sometimes dancing, sometimes slowing right down. I come close to the canvas and step far back. I leave it and return. I build up colour and cover things over. Lines disappear and reappear, while untouched spaces become as important as the marks I make. Figures and botanical forms emerge alongside fragments of mythology and references to art history. My body, intellect, emotion and spirit spill onto the canvas.

This impulse extends beyond painting into writing, hand-bound journals, teaching and gatherings. Sharing my work is part of the practice itself. I hope people recognize something of themselves within it and feel more awake to their own lives.

My background in English Literature continues to shape my practice. My Master of Arts from Simon Fraser University explored how experiences in nature expressed through art can help us articulate our ideals. I am also an experienced high school teacher, with training in yoga and Transcendental Meditation and ongoing studies in fine arts.

I live and create in North Vancouver, British Columbia, where the forest meets the ocean.

Thank-you for finding your way here and spending time with my work.

With love,