Leya Tess

Graphic Artist

Leya is a visual artist who uses art, design and drawing to help shed light on ecological concepts. Since completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria in 2016, she has collaborated with a diverse range of scientists, organizations and communities. She strives to create images that help make evidence-based research more accessible to wider audiences. Land and water-based learning play an important role in her creative process. Her reverence for rivers was first cultivated as a participant in a YMCA youth paddling program in the Arctic. She now leads multi-day canoe and kayak expeditions in both salt and freshwater across the coast. She currently lives, works and gardens on Taystay’ich traditional territory of the K’ómoks, Tla’amin and Qualicum First Nations.