Recent short holidays and a small surf trip this weekend brought me back to the roots of my work: my love for the land and sea where I’m in, and how that has been the main motivator for my work.
Before I started making art that resonates with sustainability and connecting my felt experience with the place I'm in, being at the sea held a central place in my life. That passion was born as a child, whilst playing by the shoreline; and bloomed into ecstatic enthusiasm when I discovered surfing, at around twelve - although I was only able to get into practising it a few years later. It felt utterly mysterious and skillful, the mastery of wave lines through movement. With the passing years, that same call got me into sailing. I sometimes feel it was the ocean who chose me, and not the other way around: such is the strong pull I feel towards it. I know I'm not alone in this strange evocation, which I don't see as particularly mystical but part of our evolutionary history.
Resulting from that strong ocean connection, my relationship with nature evolved: both as a scientific observer of data regarding its phenomena, and as a more careful stepper into Earth. As I read more about the data, I also started to live more accordingly with the same rhythms of nature we try to separate ourselves from - and that perhaps can give a great deal of balance in our relationship with nature. It was from this balancing act that my current artistic practice emerged.
Nature inspires me beyond measure in its shapes, colours and beauty - an evocation that I pursue with visual intention and with the sustainable choice of the materials I work with. In doing so, I aim to emotionally touch people while being environmentally sensitive in its process & outcomes. A friendliness with nature and others, and a willingness towards all being well.
As I did reconnected with my first passion on the colder waters of Algarve's western coast, watching the majestic high cliffs and the shared bond of the water creatures around me I was reminded of the awe of living in tune with nature's goodness - something that is for us to protect, preserve and regenerate forward. A lifelong passion I'm so grateful to live and share through my work.
