Artist Jamie Cannon Will Exhibit Her First Solo Show at Paterson Museum

Looking back on her years in high school, artist Jamie Cannon is grateful to those who encouraged her to pursue her natural talent.

Today the lifelong Hasbrouck Heights resident is preparing for her first solo art show at the Paterson Museum  which begins next week with an opening reception Thursday, April 28 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Her exhibition titled “Modern Hues” will run until the end of May, Cannon said.

Cannon has spent the last 10 years studying fine arts at William Paterson University and has earned a bachelor of fine arts degree and is currently completing her masters of fine arts degree graduating next month.

She’s shown her works in group shows with her WPU peers, and shows at Bergen Community College and Montclair University. Some of her pieces have been bought and are on display at the Greater New York Hospital and Hackensack University Medical Center.

Cannon is usually strictly a painter but in her exhibit she has used a mixed media collage as she enjoyed working in so many different mediums through her studies she wanted to fairly represent each one.  She will show 10 large pieces which all together create one message of the bold modern women while tying in fashion and trends.

She describes her work as bold in color. The artist she most admires is Peter Maxx who is also known for using really bold colors in a cartoon imagery type of way, Cannon said. 

“His use of color is so strong and it makes it hard to not look at. I think that’s what I like to do in my paintings,” said Cannon.

Cannon said she always displayed a creative side growing up. She loved to make art and give it to people. As she grew older she’d come across the works she made when she was really young and couldn’t help noticing that the art was pretty good for having been done at such a young age.

Growing up with two older sisters, Cannon was exposed to a lot of fashion magazines only she would view them with an artistic eye, seeing beyond the glossy images and appreciating the artistic value of the images. She’d note the way the models contorted their bodies and the use of color instead.

She continued to be creative by making things for parties, taking photographs and scrap booking. As a senior in she was unsure about where to go to college and what to pursue but it was her art teacher Barbara Kritzer that encouraged her to go to art school.

“She said ‘you are really talented and there is no question that you need to go to art school’,” Cannon relayed adding that Kritzer was always supportive and encouraging and she is glad she listened and pursued her art studies.

Cannon set off to William Paterson University to study focusing on art history, art and her credentials. She admits she wasn’t sure if she would like this form of study but as she got into it she got excited about it. After she completed her bachelors degree she decided to continue with her studies. Cannon said she knew there was more she wanted to learn and professors she had not had the opportunity to study with yet.

She went after a 60-credit masters degree which Cannon described is the farthest one can go with a fine arts degree as most degrees require 30 credits. Cannon said she feels like a perpetual student and can just keep on studying. She would like to pursue a Ph.d in arts history next which she knows is not easy as she’ll need to learn another language so she may take a few years off first to prepare for that.

Cannon said she’d love to become a professor and teach what she’s learned to other artists. She sees herself presenting seminars on the many valuable tools that all artist need from making portfolios, make CDs of their work to how to communicate with galleries.

She encourages others to pursue their talents and interests too as she’s seen many put time into studies they never really had interest in and then wound up never doing anything with.

“I have studied art for 10 years because those who encouraged me knew that art school was the right path for me," she said.