Lily Seika Jones: Songs Of Or

June 7 - July 3, 2019

Lily Seika Jones
Seattle, WA

Lily Seika Jones is a full-time artist/illustrator currently based in the third bedroom of a charming home in Shoreline, Washington with her husband and their two cats. She spends the majority of her time drinking tea indoors while creating highly detailed, whimsical watercolor and ink paintings, taking inspiration from her favourite childhood stories and mid-century illustrators, as well as the natural world of the Pacific Northwest. She graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2014 majoring in Literature, Fine Arts, and Education, and decided that very year she would pursue a career that would allow her to combine her all her passions and interests: book illustration. Since then, she has been freelancing and running Rivulet Paper Shop on Etsy. Lily is interested in how myths and fairytales shape our childhood and the world around us, and sees her art-making as an exploration of the significance of these stories as we grow up. 

Title: Songs of Or

I feel like our passage from childhood to adulthood moves so swiftly from enchantment to disenchantment, and once we've grown up we spend the rest of our lives trying to be re-enchanted through story - whether by film, art, or music. This collection of works is my own attempt at re-enchantment and returning to a place of childlike wonder by creating spaces imbued with magical elements and artifacts, that then unfold into new narratives for the viewer to explore.  The title, "Songs of Or" is inspired by an ongoing collaboration with my husband, who has beenwriting music for each of my narratives from the perspective of an otherworldly boatman named Or - and serves as a subtle nod to our oral past and the role music has played in passing along and immortalizing mythology and folklore.