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ART PORTFOLIO

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SKETCHBOOK
Abstracts

3D Swirls

This series of work started as an experiment in carving craft blocks. The medium is much softer than wood to carve but unlike other materials such as foam or plaster of paris its form remains in tact at it's fineist points.

I have found it has developed my understanding of working and creating with 3D curves by additionally painting in shadows and highlights. 

 We are constantly unravelling and re-ravelling, releasing our tight spiral then retreating back into it….but each time we do it, it comes from a different and better place.

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ABSTRACTS  2013-ongoing

This is a collection of my unconscious abstracts in which my journey back into my art and my 'self' started. None of the images were pre-planned but created through experiencing the feel and colour as it emerged in relation to how my unconscious was feeling at that given time. They were continually developing processes in response to what new was being  created.

 We are constantly unravelling and re-ravelling, releasing our tight spiral then retreating back into it….but each time we do it, it comes from a different and better place.

Rwanda

RWANDA 2017

I visited Rwanda 20 years ago to visit the gorillas. At the time it was 3 years after the horrific Rwandan genocide and the country was still volatile and unsafe. For our protection we stayed in a mission on strong curfew so I was unable to visit the country properly. However I got a glimpse of the beautiful hills and a piece of my heart had always remained there. Due to accepting I could never be a mother I needed to seek a new purpose for my remaining years and so it felt time to return as a Psychologist, Artist and for personal reasons. Before going I prepared myself fully with learning more about the genocide which left some graphic, traumatic images in my soul in which I felt I needed to paint as a way to let go of them before visiting the country as it is now. Since returning my images have started to show the positivity and hope within the country. 

In any given moment we are our history as well as our now

ANIMAL PORTRAITS 2017

In any given time we are more than one emotion 

Having emerged from focusing on myself my personality is now showing its way through the animals in my life. I continue to explore emotions through the animals  as a way to illustrate the connection we as humans have with our pets. Like humans they still come with back stories that can be shown through their behaviours, be it nervous, boystrous etc, aswell as owners seeing individual personalities in their pets. 

This collection signifies a shift in style, stepping out from behind the Geisha mask, achieving an openness I have been aspiring too for some time. I am not sure if it is due to the subject matter or that I recently made the choice to take AD's as a way of managing my overactive sensory system that has enabled this new fluidity and confidence. Fibromyalgia has created a continual tension in my body which reflects into my art as, just as it loosens up I tighten it up again.  Having to find a way to create the texture of the fur may have assisted in me letting go of my rigidity. However as my confidence grew I revisited Gorilla Camp and One moment to add another layer of colour, depth and energy. I chose to paint Gorillas to celebrate 20 years since I achieved a life ambition of seeing them in their natural habitat of Rwanda's rainforest. The paintings are of the actual gorillas from film photographs taken and recently made digital. 

Animal portraits

ORIENT  2016-2017

This collection emerged from an unconscious place following the creating of 'ORIENT'. Subtle elements have also been seen in other previous abstract works with the use of blossom as a repetitive pattern. Progressing from my more personal portraits that followed my path through therapy I feel a resonance with the Geisha girls; trapped behind my own mask of introvertedness and my poker face as a therapist that knowingly hides much of myself to the world, leaving me sad and alone. Internally I feel so much fluidity, beauty, sexuality and colour but it becomes trapped within my own mind.  I believe literature has played a big part in influencing my love of the orient with books such as Wild Swans, Falling leaves, 

Is it ever really possible to express our unconscious without our conscious interfering ? 

Orient
Concept portraits

CONCEPT PORTRAITS  2013-2016

This collection is a very personal journey through my  own therapy. These pieces were the first I exhibited a a way of having my whole 'self' accepted, not feeling I always have to present as positive.  Having unlocked my unconscious self through my abstracts my understanding became more conscious and cognitive. In trying to create a healthier balance between cognitive left brain and expressive right brain I still worked with the shapes and used  expressive colours created by the portraits. 

There are always parts of us we can’t or won’t see, either consciously or unconsciously 

LANDSCAPES  2013-2017

To have the rainbow you need the rain and the sun.

Landscapes

BEHIND THE SCENES 2014-2016

During the process of therapy I learnt that I had a repressed anger and sadness that I was not connecting to because of expectations to be happy and positive. . This in itself made me angry because of feeling repressed. Through my art I could give myself permission to connect with the darker feelings within me. Whilst I have consciously attempted to introduce this side of me into my work I am still very much drawn towards bright colours and forms that soothe and brighten me.

Behind the scenes
Travel and sketches

TRAVEL  1997-2001

SKETCHES  

INTERACTIVE ART 2013

Interactive

The concept of this piece is influenced by the therapeutic experience between counsellor and client.
Initially, in a way that I encourage my clients to work, the piece starts from my own unconscious, with no agenda, no plans, just exploring the shapes and colours in which I feel at the time needs to be expressed.


My work, in art and therapy, has always been influenced by the concepts and colours of cubism, particularly Picasso. They revolutionised the concept that we never see the world from one fixed viewpoint and there is an ever changing light and colour. Unless in a Brave New World sterile environment, colours and shapes change continually, even minutely through changing weather and lighting, through wind moving an object slightly, through the slight swaying we may make as we stand and watch, even how our emotional state may fluctuate and change in a second. Viewing an image of the world in itself can create different emotional and physical sensation that changes the view we have of said image.


Particularly in Picasso’s work to see a person for all of them is not to see just one angle, but to see them in 3 dimension. Therefore, whilst encouraging a spatial 3 dimension in my work, it challenges the idea of following the rules of lighting. My images do not conform to one source of light, therefore encouraging the viewer to respond by shifting their own mental position in the painting.
 
The second reason for not maintaining a fixed light source is for the purpose of creating a responsive interaction with the viewer. The concept of the 4 blocks is that the viewer may play with their own responses and take control on the final image that they need to be created. There are numerous variations on how the squares can be positioned and in each variation there is some sense that the images still flow between each other. By applying a fixed light source, turning a square at a right angle would then shift the source in relation to the other squares causing an inconsistent inconsistency. Therefore, the overall image starts with the inconsistency of lighting source throughout, creating a  need in the viewer to keep shifting and stabilising themselves into one area and then shifting their whole visual perspective by then viewing the  section next to it that contradicts the light source. In reflection of the therapeutic experience this illustrates how subtly and rapidly we can view and experience things so rapidly differently, having to sit with the juxtapositions within us that creates an internal conflict.
The aim is for the viewer and the client to work with these conflicts, discomforts and inconsistencies and for them to seek their own final image, or sense of being that, whilst on one level appears to flow freely may still go off in different directions, take conflicting, changing and confusing paths that never truly settle into a fixed image, reflecting the ongoing changing internal self. We can only hope to seek the most comfortable image of our internal world whilst be accepting of this continual movement and change.
 
Reflecting on the final piece and how my unconscious influenced it’s direction and concept I recognise my own personal process  and enlightenment in the last year of seeing hope that we are not stuck in one viewpoint, narrative, or construct forever. The viewer, the client, and myself always has the liberty to change the final image until it again works best for the individual, or indeed challenges them to go to a place of discomfort in which they want to overcome. By there not being a ‘right’ final image that truly works in harmony reflects that as humans we are always experiencing the world where we then learn, change, and grow, always attempting to striving for self-actualisation that for very few is never fully achievable. Even Huxley acknowledged that however stable and controlled an environment, humans have such sophisticated intelligence of emotion that no amount of cloneing can create complete and certain stability. 

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