“I AM AN AMATEUR IN THE TRUEST SENSE OF THE WORD”
Jaidah-Leigh Wyatt (she/her/elle) is a Canadian-Jamaican writer/filmmaker, currently studying Media Arts at university. A writer first and foremost, she enjoys bringing her words to life through various mediums, whether that be film, photography, interactive or audio based projects -- making her a bit of a mixed media artist as well. Above all else, she adores the weird, uncanny, macabre, and anything horror-related (specifically psychological horror). Inspired by Boots Riley, Ari Aster, Zdzisław Beksiński and surrealist artists everywhere, she has also been delving more and more into absurdism as of late. Her artistic interests continue to spiral as the years go on - making her art today somewhat unconventional, practically veering into experimental territory.
Oftentimes, Wyatt describes herself as not only someone who still in the process of learning how to create and perfect her art, but as an amateur. The word ‘amateur’ originally comes from France and roughly translates to ‘one who loves’. An amateur is someone who loves something, but does not pursue it professionally. Someone who simply pursues their interests for the sake of their pure enjoyment of it. As the years went by, amateur began to collaquially mean someone who is bad at their work, which may be true of someone who casually takes on a hobby, but this greatly takes away from the word’s romantic origins. To engage in a task without hopes of perfecting it, monetary gain or fame from it is to do something authentically - quality be damned- and this best describes why Wyatt makes art. Her work is directionless, but in a very clearly organized way. Once her stories begin, there’s no telling where they’ll end up. They’re designed to invite further investigation into their meaning and creation. A lot of her recent stories have moved away from traditional narrative approaches into more abstract concepts where people dissect important ideas around them.
Although still in the early stages of her career, Wyatt boasts an array of professional mentorship and development opportunities, including (but not limited to) joining the Year 6 cohort of OYA Media’s Emerging Filmmakers Program (2023-24), becoming an ArtWorksTO Participant (2023), having her short film What We Could Have displayed as part of DesignTO’s Youth Blueprint Exhibition (2023), being mentored on a commercial film set by director Miles Jay with Smuggler Productions (2022) and an 11 month animation mentorship with Black Girl Film School (2021) - in addition to the various student films she’s worked on over the years and more. Thus far, she was named a top performer of BGFS Film Foundations I in 2021, was the director of the interactive film Binary which won second place at York University’s inaugural game jam in 2022 and won an award for her audio piece, A Glimpse of Me, with CJRU at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2023. Her most recent achievement was her joint exhibition with Ivan Ceria entitled “CHROMA’S KEY”, which was displayed at the Into a Kaleidoscope gallery in April 2024.
As an artist, she aims to find ideas and concepts that haven't been explored. Her main goal with any project is to bring to life a vision or idea that the audience hasn't ever thought of. She chases the myth of originality and strives to discover the never before seen. Overall she aims to create works that make people think - that challenge their perspectives and change their views. Her work is intended to put a mirror in front of her audience, and inspire them to learn something about themselves and the things around them. The most important thing however, is for her to always stay creative, never be confined to the boundaries of any particular medium, and become a well-rounded artist. Whether it be writing, filmming, or drawing, you can always find her working on something (or so she says).