So a question from an amazing Facebook group was posed to it members as a way to inspire them to communicate with their audience…. and it was “What inspires you to create your art?”…. and i thought why have not done a post like this earlier…. and then I realised it would be become a therapy session very quickly!!

………

And that is the last thing I would ever ask of you. I want to create beauty from places that are not necessarily beautiful. To turn all experiences in life, the good and the bad and create beauty from it.

I think that is the reason most people create art; to use their medium of choice to make sense of the experiences they have collected so far. It is the reason that, for every artist, their art evolves (even if you don’t think so)- as you gain more experiences and insight and you put them into your art, your art then evolves with you.

At this point I haven’t even spoken about technique! As you work with a medium over time you begin to learn the medium and it nuances. You learn the rules of the medium and as you begin to “master” it (apparently it takes about 10,000 hours) you can learn to bend or break the rules!

Experimentation is a cornerstone of becoming a great artist, playing around seeing what works, and what doesn’t. What are your strengths, and in turn your weaknesses. I dabble in painting on occasion as painting allows my mind to stop to only focus what is in front of me, getting as close to a meditative state as I can manage! I took a painting workshop and I found it helps me really see what is in front of me, to see shadows and light, to see how the colours play with each other. The most surprising outcome from the workshop was to see the same subject, depicted by 6 students, seen so differently (seen below)

And if that can show nothing else it is this: be authentic to yourself and you will always create art that is original to you! Also I want to do a big shout out to my teacher Justin for helping us along (instagram; @justinvandenbergartist)

I create my type of art as an escape from the world and immerse myself in beauty in all forms. I find beauty in strength of character and in strength of self and it has always interested me that in the evolution of our society the strength and sense of self worth in women has ebbed and flowed. At present we live in a time where women are clawing it back, but looking into the past there was a time when women, and in particular feminine traits, were worshiped a beacons of strength and I want to display that in my work.

Much of my art is revisiting memories from my childhood, making them tangible. The series “At the Bottom of the Garden” is an example of how children can find magic and wonder everywhere, even in places that as “grown-ups” seem dull. And there is logic to the underlying theme “if you believe, it is real”. This theme is explored in depth in the Neil Gaiman novel “American Gods”.

I have written an artist statement on these current themes and I don’t want to bore you any further!

I hope you enjoyed my musings and you share you whys as well! Do you combine photography with other forms of fine art, or writing, or cooking or any other creative endeavours?

I would love to hear from you, and thank you for staying!xxxxx

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