Hamilton artist opens studio space in Aldershot for local creative talents

A Hamilton-area artist has returned from a residency in Paris, France, with a new appreciation and passion for the local arts scene.

He is now opening his studio in Aldershot to encourage other artists to explore their creativity and passion.

“I really like to think of myself as an artist that just projects the world that I see and that I’ve experienced really,” said the 42-year-old artist Jesse Warren. “A lot of people have said, like maybe a street artist or pop artist, but I mean, whatever shoe they want to put me in that’s fine.”

Warren says he started showing his work at the Art Crawls on James Street North in Hamilton years ago, but has only been a “professional artist” for three years.

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“I like art that really speaks to something going on,” said Warren. “I find I connect with political art, pop art — I mean the art of Andy Warhol and Jean Basquiat really spoke to me. You know, the everyday I see, the beauty in the everyday objects that I feel sometimes gets missed.”

He says he’s been told his art is a little on the “dark side,” but he just wrapped up a residency at a gallery in Paris, France, where he says his work was well received, and he’s brought that momentum home.

He rents a studio space in Aldershot and is opening his doors to any creatives to work.

“Going back to Andy Warhol, I was really inspired by the Warhol Diaries and he had a grand space in New York City where he was able to create. I’ve got goosebumps right now, where he was able to create and have other creative’s involved and have people working for him, and it was just like, generated this moment in time, instead of just being me as an artist.”

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So far, four artists have taken advantage of the free space and Warren says being around them even inspires his own creativity.

“There’s something to be said about the atmosphere when you have multiple creatives working,” said Warren. “The ideas grow bigger, that the meaning grows bigger, and I feel like we as Hamiltonians in the Burlington and the Toronto area, we’re right on the cusp — like right at the beginning of something great about to happen, and I want to be there to see it.”

Any young artists interested in connecting with Warren can reach out to him through his Instagram page.

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