Christine Jermyn
Toronto, Canada
“For me creativity has become a refuge from the challenges of life.”
Christine Jermyn’s journey as an artist spans continents, decades, and a lifetime of resilience. Born in Cork, Ireland, she first discovered her love for art as a child, often losing herself in drawing and painting. In the early 1970s, she attended Belfast College of Art, but her studies were abruptly interrupted when the school was bombed during the height of the Troubles. She and several classmates narrowly escaped with their lives. With no access to the kind of emotional support or therapy available today, Christine experienced post-traumatic stress disorder that prevented her from continuing her formal art education.
Having lived in New York for two years, due to her husband's job, she moved to Toronto. Toronto’s rich, multicultural landscape proved fertile ground for her creativity. Encounters with diverse cultures, through food, art, conversation, and travel, along with visits to galleries, time spent in nature, and the vibrant artist community around her have all shaped her vision. For the past nine years, Christine has been an active member of a juried community-based artist group, West Toronto Artists, where she also managed their Instagram and Facebook presence for eight years.
Christine’s path back to art was shaped by health challenges, including diagnoses of Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. These conditions brought physical limitations and the invisible struggles that often invite skepticism from others. In the studio, however, Christine found sanctuary. Painting became her refuge, a place where pain and uncertainty could be quieted, where time could be reclaimed, and where she could immerse herself in the joy of creation. “It gives me some respite, calms me down, and allows me to function better when I return to the real world,” she says.
Her creative philosophy embraces living in the moment, savoring the process, and refusing to be defined by bad days. She has learned that her sensitivity, once something she thought she should apologize for, is in fact one of her greatest strengths. “It’s who I am, and it’s what helps me create the art I make.”
Christine’s work blends painterly techniques with a fascination for collage. Early in her renewed art practice, she began creating “Paper Quilts” from scrapbooking paper, but soon felt limited by pre-made patterns. She started making her own collage papers- painting, gelli printing, mark making, stamping, and texturizing to produce an endless variety of textures and colors. Her love of layering extends to her acrylic paintings, where she often allows earlier layers to remain partially visible, echoing the layered nature of memory and experience.
Her process varies depending on the project. For representational work, she may begin by sorting through her extensive photo library or combining found images into a composite reference. For abstract pieces, she often starts with a color palette and lets intuition guide her brush. In collage work, she might first create an underpainting on cradled wood panels before tearing and arranging papers until the composition feels right.
While she primarily works in acrylic, Christine has recently begun experimenting with oil paints, markers, and spray paints. She appreciates the slower drying time of oils, which allows for more flexibility, and delights in discovering new tools and techniques that expand her creative vocabulary.
Nature is Christine’s greatest muse. She is captivated by its fragility and endurance, by flowers, birds, and butterflies, and the delicate yet persistent ways they inhabit the world. Memories from her life in Ireland and travels abroad enrich her imagery: wildflowers in bloom, a blue morpho butterfly drifting past, hummingbirds feeding midair, the vibrant flora of tropical landscapes. These impressions merge with her semi-abstract style, balancing recognizable forms with painterly abstraction.
Her work is infused with the emotional depth of someone who has experienced both beauty and hardship. Each painting or collage is a conversation, between her memories and the present moment, between her inner life and the outer world.
Being part of ArtLifting, she says, feels like joining a supportive community that celebrates artists with disabilities and opens new doors for creative and commercial success. It also offers validation in the face of those who doubt or dismiss invisible conditions.
Outside the studio, Christine’s life is rich with family, friendships, and curiosity. She enjoys reading, visiting art galleries, savoring coffee with friends, spending time with her grandchildren, and immersing herself in nature. She is also an advocate for accessibility in public spaces, specifically speaking out about the impact of reduced access to Toronto’s largest park on families, seniors, and people with mobility issues.
Her proudest personal accomplishments include raising three sons into “wonderful young men” and finding her way back to art as a means of navigating health challenges with hope and purpose. Looking ahead, Christine dreams of greater commercial success, seeing her work on a billboard, creating a large collaborative mural, and helping establish a permanent gallery for her artist group.
In every piece she creates, Christine invites viewers to pause, reflect, and discover their own connections within the interplay of color, texture, and form. Her art is more than an image- it is a testament to resilience, a celebration of sensitivity, and a reminder that beauty often emerges from the most layered of stories.
