My What, and My Why

Hi, my name is Jynae, and I create wood-based visual art using reclaimed wood and Razertip pyrography tools. My focus is mainly on Pacific Northwest landscapes and animals as I believe my work speaks to a collective that is forever longing for wild and beautiful spaces. I create not just pictures telling a story of our natural world, they are made from our natural world; in an earth-conscious sort of way. I take discarded wood headed for burn piles or landfills and flip it into organic representations of the places we desire to bear witness. With the current construct of our western society, being consistently immersed in mother nature isn’t always attainable for many; therefore my passion is to fill living spaces with striking reminders of what’s out there waiting for us. 

My why is simple. I want to express, reciprocate, and instil a sense of love and gratitude for the natural world and the abundance of gifts it provides to us. I want to inspire movement towards sustainability and protecting our ecosystems. I want to inspire others to explore – through their own creative expression, or out into the great wilderness that surrounds us all. But first and foremost, I want to create with my imagination and my hands every single day, because it makes me feel fulfillment and joy.

My Roots

I was privileged to be born into a loving, supportive family coming from a small farming town in the prairies of Southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Needless to say, I did not emerge into this world surrounded by mountains or trees: quite the contrary. However, beginning at a young age when I did have the opportunity to visit the dramatic mountain-scapes of Northern America, my love and admiration for the west quickly became abundant. 

I always had a knack for art growing up and eventually obtained a diploma in graphic and digital media design in British Columbia as a post-secondary education. I learned quickly that the corporate design world was in no way satisfactory to me, so I decided to abandon digital art and instead spend the better part of a decade (throughout all of my 20’s) traveling to as many places in the world that my savings would allow me. My choice to explore different parts of the globe would later inspire my art.  

That’s where the name ‘Art and Airplanes’ came from. Years and years before I even humoured the possibility of becoming an artist, I chose the name as an umbrella term for a means of sharing my art and my travels. Once I did gradually make the transition into becoming a full-time, wood based visual artist, ‘Art and Airplanes’ seemed to stick; although now it’s (mostly) focused on my creative journey instead of my physical ones.

I have been practicing the art of woodburning (pyrography) since 2012, but only in 2020 did I begin to learn how to operate power tools and work with wood through the teachings of my incredible dad, Norm: a very intelligent, talented, and retired carpenter/farmer. Everything that I’m doing now, I attribute to the people that love and believe in me. I’m a product of every single person that has helped me on this journey and I’m forever grateful.

Testimonials