My name is jyll simmons and I am the creator and owner of she said gallery
Whats your story?
Bracebridge, small-town Ontario in the ’80s – you can imagine the scene. I grew up there, surrounded by lakes, trees, and small-town folk – small-town life felt a bit suffocating. My teenage years were a time of experimenting. I discovered the grunge music right around the time that Kurt Cobain killed himself and was obsessed with the grunge scene and all the darkness that came with it. I started really getting into trouble in school in grade 7 and spent the next 5 years experimenting with boundaries. I dated older men, hitchhiked, experimented with any drug I could get my hands on, went through a goth phase, a raver phase, and eventually realized that high school was coming to an end. I was always a really confident child, and never did it occur to me that I wouldn’t leave this town and go to university. A guidance counselor at my high school told me that I would never get into university and should look at local college options. I don’t think it was that I was opposed to college, but I was not staying local, and I was definitely not going to be told what to do. So I got my act together, brought my marks up, and graduated high school early. I left with my boyfriend and his best friend and moved out west to snowboard. It wasn’t what I had envisioned – we ended up living in a 1-bedroom motel, and I always smelled like French fries as the only job I could get was in a kitchen at a fast-food spot. I didn’t snowboard once. We took turns asking people in front of the liquor store to buy us booze. End of adventure. I really wanted to get into school now. I wrote a crappy little essay and faxed it to my aunt on the motel fax machine. She typed it up for me and submitted it. A few months later, I was off to UofT.
What inspires/motivates you?
The idea to create a space for artists to showcase and sell their work really came from my lifelong obsession with artists and always wanting to be one. While living at Dundas/Bathurst, I noticed all these coffee shops and even my local laundromat starting to hang art, provide spaces to artists, and I wanted to be a part of that. My boyfriend and I have owned and managed a laundromat for a number of years, and I wanted to do more with the space. The real inspiration, if you want to call it that, was this old art mag I was looking at. I saw this series of photos from… and loved them. They were sad, dark, funny, and beautiful. I loved that this artist was telling an actual story with his photos. He was also Ukrainian, and the photos were taken in Ukraine; my boyfriend’s family is Ukrainian, so this felt meant to be. With little to no budget, I found the artist on Instagram and wrote him asking if I could purchase a print. He then sent me the whole series. I printed them all, framed them, and they were the first installation; these photos are still some of my favourites.
What are your goals?
I really want to be an amazing mom and show my kids the world. I want to remain calm and be a woman they are proud to call mom; I want them to be cultured, as that was always a thing I was self-conscious about when I was growing up. I don’t think I went to a museum till my mid-20s. I want to be a good partner to my incredible boyfriend. We have been together for over a decade, and I want to continue to work at it and treat it like a new relationship. Professionally, I also really want to grow She Said. I have some ideas regarding curation, collaborations, and how I can better support artists in making money off their work. I would love to have a job one day that doesn’t have me behind a desk all day.
What are you proud of?
I am super proud of myself. I really had the potential to struggle my whole life. I was definitely not on the right path and have been through some serious tragedies that, if I had just given up on life, people around me would have supported that decision. I didn’t really speak to my family very much in my 20s and managed to get a job in a company that I still work for and progress to a level that I didn’t even think was possible (others definitely didn’t). I never aspired to be much and didn’t think I would ever do anything with my life, so I am proud that I have a career, created this art gallery (actually followed through on it), and did it during my mat leave. I am most proud of being a really good mom. My daughter was a surprise, and it wasn’t like in the movies when you cry from happiness when you find out you are pregnant. But she is by far my biggest accomplishment as she is only 2, and she is cool, she is confident, and I am just so proud to be her mom. I really can’t believe how quickly I fell into the mom role and how much I love it. Looking forward to having a son and everything that comes with that responsibility in May 2024. I have an incredible amount of energy, so I think that helps a lot as I am never tired.
Do you have a quote or proverb that you live by?
“When I am 80, what will I think of this decision”
…has steered most of my big and small decisions throughout my life. Stuff that feels so overwhelming or difficult now, it’s easy to see that in 40 years, it will be nothing, and I won’t even remember it.
If you had the option to restart your life, what would you do different the next time around?
Maybe appreciate the time I lived at home more. Maybe because I have a young family and am expecting, but sometimes I feel sad that I will never live with my parents and brothers again. I think I would tell myself to appreciate things and not worry about growing up so fast.
If you could give any advice to your younger self what you would tell them?
Chill the fuck out. I did everything in excess and often stressed about things that just didn’t matter. I am impressed with how health-conscious younger people are these days, so maybe I would tell myself to introduce at least a few health habits when I was younger instead of actively destroying myself for the sake of fun.
Any wild stories you want to share?
By no means did it seem wild at the time, but I was a live-in nanny on an island who babysat for two American billionaires and very powerful families in my late teens. I didn’t understand wealth at the time. In my mind, they were extremely rich and probably made 200k. When I bought a pack of cigarettes on their account once cuz I was dying for a cigarette, I felt guilty about it for years. Later, I realized they were billionaires, and it probably didn’t cause them to lose as much sleep as it did for me. I got the job through a newspaper ad in the local paper and the wife picked me up in a golf cart to interview me. Suddenly, I was super embarrassed about driving my dad’s teal Mercury Topez. This isn’t a wild story per se, but this is a true story that still gives me goosebumps telling. The family at one point went back to Pittsburg, and I was watching their cottage on an island alone with their two big labradoodle dogs. The dogs drove me a little crazy as they would bark if a boat went by (even in the distance) and run to the shore. One night, it was pouring rain, lightning, thunder, the whole thing, and I was a little scared, to say the least. I fell asleep on my little cot and woke up to my mattress floating in the air. I was so scared that I just accepted my fate, and a part of me felt a little justified as I had always believed in ghosts and here was my proof. Suddenly, the mattress dropped, and the dogs ran out from under the bed. They had been sleeping under the bed because they were scared, and when they stood up because they were massive dogs, they lifted the mattress and me in the air. The next morning, still a little rattled but kinda laughing to myself, couldn’t wait for the groundskeeper and housekeeping staff to arrive as I was over being alone; I was 17 and super scared. As I left my room, I noticed that the room down the hall which I called the blue room was dark. I had just made the beds in the room the day before and let the curtains open. I went to look in the room, and the mattresses were off the beds along with the wooden board that was underneath them and lying against the windows, blocking out the sun. I don’t think I need to explain how scared I was since I was alone, and I had personally made those beds the night before. As I mentioned, the dogs were unruly and barked at everything, so there was no way someone came into the cottage without waking us all up. I then went downstairs to the kitchen, and the locked photography dark room that always had a massive padlock on it and I had never actually seen inside, was busted off, and photos were all over the kitchen floor. I called my dad, and he came and picked me up 🙂
Give yourself a plug (Events, Merch, etc. Promote yourself)
To find out more about upcoming shows, please follow @shesaidgallery
Anything else you want to add? Feedback? Shoutout? Recommendations?
I would like to share a sincere thanks to Ozokoh (@Oá–´á–´Iá‘•E.ᔕᑌá‘á‘á’ªY.á—©á–‡TI$T) who was one of the first artists i worked with and has continued to be my biggest supporter over the year. I feel blessed to have met him, worked with him and call him a friend. If you haven’t had a chance to meet him yet personally, make the time to do so. He is one special person <3