Tiana Jones

Year of birth: 2004
Where do you live: Toronto, Ontario
Describe your art in three words: Romantic, Black, Colorful
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Can you share how your childhood experiences, such as drawing on walls and making up pictures from books, influenced your current artistic style?

I’ve always had a vivid imagination, making up pictures and allowing myself to create helped me bring everything I’ve created in my mind to life. This resulted in me starting to draw on the walls as a kid- I found the paper was never big enough for my imagination. Being able to express my imagination and creativity at such an early age allows me to now create a colourful, stylistic, illustrative flow that I bring into my current art practice. – I’m always referencing this feeling of nostalgia.

What were the most impactful lessons you learned while studying fine arts at Centennial College?

Every single professor I had at Centennial impacted me and my art practice in such a powerful way. But the most impactful lesson I took away from my studies was to promote yourself. Nobody makes art like you, and there is no “bad art” Don’t be afraid to share you and your creativity- even if you feel like no one’s looking at or appreciating it, someone always will and you never know how beautifully that can turn out for you.

Tiana Jones, Ghost, 2024

How do you choose the subjects for your portraits, and what inspires your selection of colors and chaotic backgrounds?

I take inspiration from my everyday surroundings. I live in a very diverse city so my art often reflects the people I see. The sometimes chaotic colourful or childlike backgrounds in my works are always an ode to my childhood art pieces, I always want to feel free while doing art so putting colours down in this way is that for me.

Could you elaborate on your exploration of relationships through the lens of different camera screens in your current works?

The question I tend to get about my current works: “Love through a screen” is why camera lenses? Well, my answer is in this generation to feel we’ve lived through a moment we must capture a picture or video of it to feel it’s real. But who can blame us? As someone who’s a hopeless romantic, you absorb this media with constant perfect moments in relationships being represented and sometimes it feels like it’ll never happen in real life. So to wrap it up me using cameras as canvases is me referring to both capturing perfect moments we never want to end and a reference to those perfect movie moments we see in media.

How do you ensure your artwork communicates the energy, joy, and nostalgia you aim to convey?

I always strive to make sure my artwork sparks joy. I do this by choosing bright colour palettes and visually representing a joyful scenery. The nostalgia usually comes from the subjects I choose whether it’s an old movie, song or old family photos. I want my pieces to feel like a warm happy memory.

Tiana Jones, Love, 2023

What draws you to use acrylics, oil pastels, and colored pencils, and how do you decide which medium to use for a particular piece?

I love working with mixed media in general. Although my usual go-to is acrylic paint this is mostly because I love the fluidity and the dynamics of it. Sometimes when I want to add different textures or feelings, I’ll add pencil crayons or oil pastel on top. But I think it does boil down to what I want the final outcome of the piece to be and how I want the piece to feel and that’s how I choose my mediums

Do you find digital art offers different opportunities for expressing your themes compared to traditional mediums?

Digital art and traditional art for me are drastically different. I find digital art more challenging for my style just because I think there’s so much to learn with it that I haven’t yet that are much easier for me to do traditionally. I think once I hone that skill it’ll definitely open up a whole new set of opportunities for more clean illustrative designs I want to create in the future.

Tiana Jones, Love Letters & Polaroids, 2024