Born in Grants Pass Oregon, Jacquelyn always had a love of anything creative. Much of her younger years were spent at her grandmother’s kitchen table helping with family craft items such as pressed floral pictures, pine needle basket making, sourdough figures and of course — art. As she grew, traditional art became her love and in many ways her escape. She found that art was a way to express her emotions and purge herself into a picture. Although animals were her subjects to draw as a child, Jacquelyn later gravitated to portraits. She found faces to be interesting and was fascinated by how just changing one little angle or adding in a line/crease could change the entire feeling of the piece.

At 13, Jacquelyn moved to Fairfield California and was exposed to more that the art world had to offer. On one visit to San Francisco, she fell in love with the various art style and the artists. All she wanted to be was an artist and free to create. Being an only child to a single parent, money was tight so most of what Jacquelyn learned was from books or high school art class. She drew constantly, improving her skills with every stroke.

In 1991, Jacquelyn’s mother married a Canadian Naval Officer and soon after she moved with them to Ottawa Ontario after a brief stay in Victoria BC.

By 1993, Jacquelyn found herself to be a single parent and put her traditional art on hold to pursue an associate degree in graphic design. For the next 13 years, she rarely drew as her career as a graphic designer was the focus and fulfilled her creative needs.

In 2010, her world fell apart. Her mother was diagnosed with stage 4 Ovarian Cancer. She searched for comfort and turned back to her art, mostly drawing for her mom as she was her #1 fan and always her biggest supporter. She was always happy to have a piece of Jacquelyn’s art – even if it was coming from a source of sorrow. It would heal them both even if just briefly. An illustration of the dragonfly wrapped in the teal ribbon was just one of the illustrations Jacquelyn did exclusively for her mother when she was in the middle of her fight. Jacquelyn’s dad has since had it tattooed on his upper arm.

Jacquelyn’s mother passed away in 2013 from ovarian cancer. In her grief, her art exploded with more raw emotion and refinement than it ever had before. In 2014, Jacquelyn decided to go public, sell her work and give 20% of each sell to Ovarian Cancer Canada in honour of her mother, Barbara Ann Bird.

It wasn’t until 2014 that Jacquelyn contacted Lynn Griffiths, the co-chair of the Ottawa Chapter of the Walk of Hope to be a volunteer that she realized her art was worthy. Jacquelyn donated a black and white oil painting of a sunflower to be given to the top fundraiser that year