For Lynn, This process began growing up in a small Southern Ontario town. My father worked in places with exotic names such as Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik, and the DEW line. He brought home the most wonderful artwork that made the best 'show 'n tell' at school. Family stories intrigued me - my mother's grandmother would be called out in the middle of the night to mid-wife babies to the Aboriginal mothers who spoke no English.

I would spend countless hours in my room in the house I grew up in, dreaming of becoming a cartoonist, then a photo journalist. Between my Visual Arts college program and my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), I invested my student loan on travel to Southeast Asia!

My art explores many facets - a desire to understand a world to me that often feels so polarized and so interconnected. My art never seems quite finished. I like to think the observer has an important role to add his or her context to such a silent medium perhaps a call to stop and feel and listen in on a world different than my own. In that difference and in my own personal exploration, there is a discovery of commonality in emotion, spirit, tenacity.An interesting communal mirror which offers much vivacity.

The process of drawing for me is absolutely paramount. The longer I can build and bring forward the images, the more sense I get of lives lived or in progress - my own, their own. Within the drawings are experiences of my internal world, struggles, light, dark, love, joy, anxiety, confusion, curiosity, and on it goes.

I mostly use a monochromatic colour scheme simply because when I was in college and university, it was easier and the end result was more bold, dramatic and impactful, especially in a world dominated with colour. Exploring colour is new. It started out as an accident and then as a necessary requirement in order to step outside my comfort zone. Imagine that - a comfortable artist!!

A spiritual teacher of mine once wrote, 'Confusion is the only suffering. Put your confusion on paper, investigate it, and set yourself free.' I absolutely loved that. Within the process, I become self-investigating and self-witnessing, hopefully becoming a better me. Am I free? Part of me is! The other part continues to draw the process out.

'Lynn Gray's images are described as fiery ethnic portrait drawings. She feels it is the viewer's responsibility to complete the drawing through self-reflection and questioning what it means to have and engage in an inclusive community spirit and presence.' Lynn is a multi award winning artist whose work is purchased on an international basis.