Prologue. Portraits for future selves

Works from the
Youth Art Mentorship Program

Lillian Bleecker, Jay Hopkins, Violet Jackson
Anaïs Le Goaix, and AJ Livings

Artist-Mentor: Spencer J. Harrison

This exhibition is the culmination of the 2024/25 Youth Art Mentorship Program. Now in its fourth year, this program provides an opportunity for artists at the end of their high school careers to work with an artist-mentor, developing work for exhibition at the Art Gallery of Peterborough.

Selected by a jury of arts professionals at the end of 2024, artists Lillian Bleecker, Jay Hopkins, Violet Jackson, Anaïs Le Goaix, and AJ Livings, have spent the last four months working with artist-mentor Dr. Spencer J. Harrison, Education Programming Coordinator Andrew Ihamaki, and Curator Fynn Leitch as they each work in their own way to bring forward diverse perspectives informed by their lived experience.

Prologue. Portraits for future selves includes painting, drawing, collage, and sculpture. Speaking in the vocabularies of fantasy and reality in the grammar of abstraction and realism, these artists deconstruct and reconstruct their world with hope and anxiety. This exhibition is full of bodies. Vulnerable, strong, curious, angry, funny, or in love, they ask questions that grapple with the now to conjure a better tomorrow, by any means necessary.

The AGP wishes to congratulate these artists. It has been a pleasure to work with them through this process – to witness the creation of these works and the building of a strong and supportive community in our studio. We are in awe of their tenacity, skill, kindness, and conviction.

Lillian Bleecker “For me, art imitates love; each piece and sketch representing or being curated for a person, place, or thing that I hold dear. When I was younger, this manifested through specially crafted birthday and holiday cards before later developing into family and friends’ portraits – freely given with the intention of spreading art and the nostalgia and thankfulness it can express. In the future, I hope my art continues to be an expansion of myself and the deep appreciation I feel for those around me due to their contribution in making my former memories something worth longing for.”


Jay Hopkins “Art has been my way to connect with the world. My childhood, full of doodles in sketchbooks and messy paintings, has evolved into a deeper passion for sculpture. All my work is rooted in the realms of fantasy and horror and draws heavy inspiration from artists such as Brian Froud and Jordu Schell. I aim to create objects not just to look at — I want it to be an experience. Transporting the viewer out of reality, into a fantasy full of emotions. Whether it be wonder, curiosity, or even discomfort. My goal is to fully immerse viewers into fantasy that feels real, even if it is just for a moment.”

AJ Livings is an emerging artist from the rural village of Keene, Ontario. They have achieved high academic standing since being accepted into Thomas A. Stewart’s Integrated Arts program and have earned many academic arts awards. They have had the privilege to learn from artists such as John Climenhage, Katherine Durst, and Anne Hoover, all of whom have influenced both their painting and drawing techniques. AJ experiments with different mediums and has found success in both 2D and 3D art making. AJ practices self expression through portraits, often abstract. They continue to polish their technique in portraiture and recreating the human form. AJ plans to further explore their art as a part of a journey in capturing the struggle of mental illness. They want to continue to have an impact on the community they’re in through their art.


Anaïs Le Goaix “I have been creating art since I was a toddler. My father, who is an artist and still does art in the community, influenced me. To say I haven’t gained confidence in my art until very recently would be true. It’s only in the past year that I have felt that my art career could be achievable. Art takes time and comes from the heart or lived experiences. I am primarily a character artist. I create people who may only live in my head, but I put them on paper so others can have them live in their heads too. These characters are very real to me, and I do my best to make them a reality.”

Violet Jackson “I am a Grade 11 Integrated Arts student learning to navigate the world through my artwork. Art has been a constant in my life like no other. Through my parents splitting up, moving houses, switching from homeschool to institutional school, losing and gaining friends, and getting through high school, art has always been there. Art has been there to lean on and use as an outlet whether that be through drawing, poetry, painting, sculpture, or photography. After so many years of art helping me, I want to use it to help open other people’s eyes to the issues in our world. For this exhibition, I have focused on creating commentary around the way that society views and sexualizes feminine bodies and how that impacts the people who inhabit those bodies. I want my work to be thought provoking, leaving you feeling like you have your own views and biases to unpack.”