2024-2025 Main Street Gallery Season

Jamie-Lee is a multi-medium artist based in Ketchikan, Alaska. Working mainly in scratch art, watercolor and color pencil. She has resided in Ketchikan for over 20 years. It is this beautiful place that she found the love of her life, with whom she shares two, amazing children and several furry companions. 

She derives inspiration from the scenes of home, the natural world and faith in the One who created it all. Jamie enjoys a variety of subject matters, but her absolute favorite is animals. Her love for scratch art began a couple of decades ago. Drawn to the ability to make detailed and realistic fur and hair textures. Being an animal lover and realism admirer, it’s very satisfying. 

Scratch art begins with a base layer of paper, clay board, or foil with a thin layer of black Indian ink that covers the surface. A sharp tool is used to gently scratch away the ink, revealing the bottom layer. The product is a high definition contrast image. The technique is unique and wonderful in its ability to represent textures; in particular to capture soft fur or flowing hair. There are colored inks made especially for scratch board. It is added to the exposed clay board, after the top layer of black ink has been removed.

The biggest challenge putting together this exhibit was choosing which animals to showcase. Out of the hundreds of thousands of species on the planet that are unique, fascinating and in danger of extinction, these are the ones that felt like the best to show diversity and the issues wildlife faces across the world. My hope, as you view a few of the creatures we share the globe with is that you would take some thought into how you as an individual impact our environment. Not just here in the state we live, but all across the world. 

We can all make a difference in saving the lives of those who are the most innocent in our climate changing and habitat destruction. One trend you might see throughout each species, is the loss of habitat. Much of this is due to the increased population of people, and the push to make room for farm lands. Support sustainable farming. Do your best to purchase products that are sustainably made. A lot of common apparel companies leave a massive pollution impact on our planet, as well as terrible working conditions for their employees. Do a sustainability search before you buy. This includes food products. When possible, use reusable or biodegradable packaging instead of one time use plastics. If we all make small life changes, it will make a big difference.

For every piece of art sold from this exhibit, a portion will be donated to www.worldwildlife.org International