“Growing Season is an exploration of my transition to motherhood, a moment of extreme vulnerability but also strength and life-giving power. This period of change has redefined my identity and reshaped my relationship with my community, amplifying my awareness of our societal connections to nature and the land. Navigating this evolution, I have found grounding in my garden. As a gardener and mother, I attempt to hold in balance the desire to nurture and protect without controlling or restricting.

In these works I explore these tensions; pulling weeds, cutting plants in their prime, and giving flowers as gestures of love and thanks. Each action can be seen as a metaphor for our yearning for harmony with nature in a capitalist culture that often disconnects us from the land and each other. Growing Season builds upon traditional symbolism of flora as expressions of love, loss and healing. We are in nature, down in the weeds, wading through, barefoot. Glimpses of limbs and the human presence dissolve the traditional landscape, portrait and still life distinctions. In these intimate interactions with the natural world, our interconnectedness is evident, we are nature, complex, entangled and beautiful.”

Philippa Jones is an artist who calls St John’s NL, home after immigrating from the UK and gaining citizenship in 2022. Jones is a mother, visual artist, former Executive Director of Eastern Edge Artist Run Centre. Central to Jones’ work is the creation of secular spaces of wonder, exploring our relationship to mortality and time, active myth making, wonder and the inquisitive mind. Her diverse art practice includes sculpture, drawing, painting, stop-motion animation, art games and interactive installations. Jones completed a BFA and an MFA at Falmouth University (UK). She has exhibited widely, including at The National Gallery of Canada, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery (NL), Beaverbrook Art Gallery (NB), Two Rivers Gallery (BC) and the Confederation Centre (PEI).

Growing Season now continues  to October 5 at Christina Parker Gallery; you can see the full exhibition here. (Images: Tall weeds, long shadow (mixed media, 48″ x 50″, 2024), A gift from the wilds (mixed media, 19″ x 14″, 2024), Fresh for a moment (mixed media, 48″ x 50″, 2024) Overtouched (media media, 70″ x 48″, 2024): all courtesy Christina Parker Gallery)