Since moving to Canada in 2021, most of the people in my social circle have been artists. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I lived for nearly four years before relocating to Toronto, I was surrounded by photographers, painters, musicians, ceramicists, and playwrights, many of whom, including my wife, were graduates of the local art university. Being part of that community meant taking part in conversations about not just the exciting and enriching aspects of artistry ─ gallery exhibitions, new projects, artist talks, and live performances ─ but also about the unglamorous, precarious, and often grueling realities of trying to make a living as an artist.

For many artists in Canada today, survival comes down to stringing together grants, side jobs, and the occasional paycheck from selling or performing their work. Uncertainty is built into the profession: a job or grant might fall through at the last minute, suddenly leaving artists scrambling to cover bills. It’s a constant grind. Expanded health care benefits and paid vacations are nonexistent. When illness strikes, most artists keep working anyway. That was the case when I interviewed Montreal-based musician Ada Lea (Alexandra Levy) about her third and most recent album, when i paint my masterpiece. Though battling a fever, she pushed through our virtual conversation, sometimes pausing for a tissue, to share her insights about the record.

Fittingly, when i paint my masterpiece is an album that grapples with a system that demands much of artists while providing increasingly less support. After extensive touring in support of 2019’s what we say in private and 2021’s one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, Lea decided to take a step back and reorient herself. She stopped touring and began studying painting and poetry, teaching at Concordia, and exploring life and art beyond the music industry.

At Concordia, Lea teaches a course called “The Songwriting Method.” Co-developed by Lea, this method is both an approach to music-making and an ethos, emphasizing collaboration and community-building. Students are encouraged to write one song every three days for a month, repeating the cycle four times a year. By the end of the year, if they’ve stuck to the schedule, they’ll have 40 songs. “It’s about just writing the song, no matter what stage of creation it’s at, no matter how ‘bad’ or ‘good.’ It gets people out of their heads and into the habit of creating with ease, support, and play,” Lea has said. The approach demystifies the songwriting process and finds value in the act of creation rather than just the final product. 

when i paint my masterpiece is steeped in this same songwriting ethos. The 16 tracks on the album were distilled from over 200 songs that Lea created over a three-year period. Co-produced with Luke Temple of Here We Go Magic, the record was recorded live off-the-floor in a house in rural Ontario with a tight-knit coterie of musicians including Lea, guitarist Chris Hauer, bassist Summer Kodama, and drummer Tasy Hudson. This method of recording does not shy away from imperfections; it embraces them as part of the process. For example, “moon blossom”, the second track on the record, is emblematic of the approach: somewhat jagged in its production and not rigidly structured, the song is an endearing folksy jaunt through a moon-filled night. 

The album is also a deeply interdisciplinary record. The album cover depicts Lea playing guitar against a backdrop of her paintings, and it’s clear that her artistic pursuits outside of music have influenced the record. The instrumentation is layered in a way that feels informed by a visual arts practice, and the lyrics are laced with references to visual artists, poets, and songwriters, including Francesca Woodman, Frank O’Hara, Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen. These nods feel organic, like you’re browsing through a friend’s bookshelf or record collection. Lea and her band let the songs breathe: just as space has a purpose in a poem, silence becomes part of the music, contributing to the emotional resonance of songs like “it isn’t enough” and “just like in the museum”.

Like one hand on the steering wheel, this record is an album of vignettes. What is different is the focus. when i paint my masterpiece is focused on the experiences of everyday life: a dinner party with friends, a haircut, a concert underneath the Van Horne Underpass in Montreal.  Lea takes these everyday experiences and transmutes them, imbuing them with a sense of otherworldly meaning. Take “baby blue frigidaire mini fridge”, an imagistic journey through an apartment. The lyrics detail the second-hand furniture, records, books, tchotchkes, and thrifted treasures before shifting romantically from the material to the ephemeral: “This chair, this window, this mountain view / our old-time souls, this old-time moon.”

Taken as a whole, when i paint my masterpiece is a refreshing new offering, not just as a collection of songs but as a model for a more humane and sustaining style of creation. On the first track of one hand on the steering wheel, titled “damn”, Lea painted a world-wearied picture, singing that “every year is just a little bit darker / then the darker gets darker / then it's dark as hell.” This new record, although unafraid to touch on difficult themes, is more optimistic, even hopeful, and unmistakably grounded in a sense of community. Sonically, it leans into folk-inspired, twangy textures, tracing its lineage back to artists like Neil Young, Jim Croce, and Karen Dalton.

Sparked by Lea’s own anxieties about measuring up to legends, the song flips artistic insecurity on its head: “Bob Dylan couldn’t have written this song / not even if he wanted to, not even just for fun.” It’s an incredible moment of affirmation, not just for Lea herself but for all artists. In a time when technological and economic forces are working together to devalue the creation of art, it is an important reminder that music-making, along with all forms of art-making, is worthy. What you create doesn’t have to be perfect. The act of creating is itself the masterpiece. 

Ada Lea Tour Dates 2025