PAINTER, CURATOR, DESIGNER
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Biography
Jaime Rome Crain is a fine artist based in the Inland Northwest. Jaime works in oil paint, and her work explores the beauty and power of the human mind through themes such as the human condition, memory, emotional sensitivity, and contemporary social issues. She combines figures with nonobjective environments and embraces heightened, often unexpected color. Her body of work evokes a strong emotional response from collectors, and Jaime values that moment of connection more than any other point in the creative process. Jaime earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art and graphic design from Whitworth University in 2022 and has worked as a professional artist since. Her mission is to help her viewers feel seen, and she is excited by every opportunity to get her work into a new home. Jaime has received numerous talent awards and grants from local organizations, and she exhibits work in the Inland Northwest in galleries and at fine art festivals. She is passionate about the local arts community and helps other local artists be seen via Garage Sale Exhibition, a community project which she co-founded and curates. In 2024, Jaime is an Artist-In-Residence at The Hive®, and her work will be on view at Coeur d' Alene's Emerge gallery during the month of August.
Artist statement
Drawing from my experience with extreme emotional highs and lows, primary themes in my work are the beauty and power of the human mind and, exploration of the self, and human connection. Consequently, my motivation to create work is to express the intensity of certain emotions, memories, and dreams using the specifics of the human figure. My paintings combine portraiture with non-objective environments and are saturated in fiercely contrasting warm and cool colors. I enjoy creating heightened and dramatic color palettes that push my work in a contemporary direction. My work is meant to help those with heavy hearts feel seen.
I play with perception and contrast in my Blue Window series. Looking into the blue creates a mood drastically different than looking at the paintings as a whole. I equate this to looking through a window into a life that is not one’s own. The windows are a stark break from the organic forms, and they ask the viewer to consider empathy. They remind us of what we can’t know.
As a young adult, I’ve realized that, yes, painting is what I do, but being an artist is who I am. It defines and explains me in more ways than I realized in the past. If I could give one healing statement to my younger self, I would tell her that she’s an artist. That’s her “why.”
“painting is what I do, but being an artist is who I am.”
Jaime’s Résumé
Read about the artist’s experience and honors