This week, I speak with Brenda Dunn (aka Art in Jest) about the skills developed through art and being a community-engaged artist. Brenda discusses the importance of relationships and social awareness in art and valuing yourself and those around you!

Brenda Dunn's bio:
"I make things. I also make things happen."

Brenda Dunn has been getting in trouble for crayoning on the walls for as long as she can remember. She eventually went to art school at the University of Guelph and drew on whatever she wanted.

She works and plays in Ottawa where she came for grad school and stuck around ever since. She learned lots of busy words during her Masters in English Literature, but it turns out she prefers the visual to the verbal when it comes to communication. You can see the things she makes at artinjest.com, or rifle through her digital sock drawer on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all @artinjest.

She was hired into a corporate environment straight out of grad school and spent six years being a high-performing fish out of water. When the opportunity to change careers presented itself, she ran full tilt back to the arts and she promises never to stray again. She’s still super scared of cubicles.

She also doesn't totally get why these things are always written in the third person but concedes that it does just sort of feel right."