Culture (4)

Artists Describing Their Art:

Stephanie Ford Forrester - Where does it come from? Why does one artist paint dark, disturbing images and another make art of transcendent light and beauty? What motivates the incredibly unique expressive mode of each individual artist? Life experience, external influences, serendipity, magical moments, receptivity, the minutia of life: all these combine to drive the artist to make art. I am very intrigued by the wonderful sensations and ideas that come out of left field, little glimmers of perception that happen on the periphery of my vision and awareness that evolve either instantly or over time to take physical form as paintings and fabric work. Be they the ephemeral, shifting colours and rhythms of the sea, the intensity in a person's face, or the ancient mythologies and symbols locked in the carved stone of past centuries, these are images that have worked themselves sideways into my mind and refuse to leave. Sometimes they come unbidden, charting their own course until set free in visual form. The journey of the creative process is very personal to each artist; we must allow our minds to be receptive to gentle peripheral influences as well as the powerful, 'in- your- face' immediate ones. The very materials one ...