Dessie Jeanne Marshall

Was born in Drumheller, Alberta on March 28th, 1986. Her childhood years were spent living on a small acreage without a television, which likely contributed to her vivid imagination and ability to see images in everyday objects. She was a child who spent countless hours searching for dinosaur fossils, riding horses, and watching with utter fascination the tiny yet epic adventures carried out by the insect world. Dessie was artistically inclined from a very young age. When exposed to urban life during her school years, being a very friendly and social child enabled her to adapt well. However, she noticed an unsettling disconnect between urban children and the natural world to which she felt so much a part of.

At the age of twenty, the artist was studying the features of a large leaf with her usual sort of appreciation when the image of an elephant head suddenly became apparent to her perception. Inspired, she took the leaf home and carved it to reveal the hidden image. From that day on Dessie began to look at leaves in a whole new way. In the fall of 2010, at the age of 24, she moved to Mexico for the winter to search the jungle for leaves and pursue her dream of sharing these visions with the world. She now has a studio in the mountains of British Columbia and travels the continent extensively. Dessie has named this pioneering form Violent Hippie Leaf Art. She is now set to take the art world by peaceful storm, and hopes her work will one day go down in history as a completely new form of art, brought about by her deep appreciation for nature.

Dessie Marshall’s goal is to seek the potential of this new and archival art form. Her hope is that its exposure to the world will help people see leaves, and nature, in a new and exciting fashion. She believes that it is the fate of humankind to rediscover an ancient aspect of being, one that recognizes and respects the vitality and true value of the natural world.