Where I am right now as an artist, after three years of learning on the nursery slopes, is feeling called to leave the initial, preliminary supports behind and venture out, off-piste, as a new kind of beginner – always a beginner! – who has some basics in place. It’s my wide open space showing up again! What wide-open space, you might ask?
When I left the church around 17-ish years ago after a similar amount of time deeply invested in it, I had a vision of standing at the edge of a wide open, endless vista. There were no roads or paths, no signposts, no landscape features. Nothing. This was showing me I was to go out and explore and discover things about my humanity, my spirituality, for myself. FOR. MYSELF. Nothing second-hand. No adoption of the teachings of anyone else as my own Truth, however revered a spiritual guide, teacher or guru they may be. Yes, I could listen, read and take notice of the work of others, but in the manner of a sifting process, picking and choosing, recognising what resonated with my existing personal experience and using these new morsels alongside that as ingredients in my own synthesis, my own alchemy, along the journey to understanding and living my own Truth more deeply.
Where we start as fledgling artists who are wanting to go as far as possible is just a way in…for me it was knowing I wanted to express a BIG IDEA in the form of abstract art (Everything Is Connected), but with not the slightest clue of how, then doing CVP (Creative Visionary Programme by Nicholas Wilton) and all that was taught there…how and when to use solid principles…using paint and collage in multiple layers…freedom to play and experiment…and then FYJ (Find Your Joy by Louise Fletcher)…majoring more on feelings, likes, dislikes, preferences. The early paintings that came out of these learning experiences, through 2019, 2020 and most of 2021 were the places, the fertile playgrounds, where I could find myself.
So where I am now with my life and my art, and the development in one cannot be separated from the other, I’m going to get to meet myself in my art anew…meet parts of me I haven’t yet met perhaps, if there are some…maybe express parts of me that have been quieter or compartmentalised and need some space at this point to be more generally shared. I am feeling called to be ever more expressive about what is true for me, and how life has been showing up in unexpected ways to move me on and bring me ever deeper into my purpose.
Art-wise, I have one word that is asking to be the overarching guide to what I will make next.
Autobiographical.
So watch this space…
