A not-so brief timeline about about recurring motifs in my current art (from an artist who thinks her work is TOTALLY random!)
Every artist has feared the dreaded ‘Describe Your Work!’ at some point in there creative journey. I fear it all the time. I have this constant conundrum of worrying about if my art will still be perceived as Art (with a capital A!) if I have no deep meaning or connections behind it. Which is doesn’t.
As a Dopamine Artist, I create because I need to, for the sake of my mental health and mood and general zest for life. Without creating, everything gets greyer and slower and sluggier. I need to create the way that I need water and nutrition and clean air to breathe, sustenance for the soul. And it’s always been that way for me, as far as I’m aware, which is a long time to not understand why I make what I make. I still don’t understand it, I just like to paint what I’m interested in. But some of the motifs that I paint, did in fact come from somewhere earlier on in the timeline.
Some things happened at Uni that made me not want to paint anymore, and so I went and got a retail job (because I needed a job!) and for a few years I just kinda painted on the side. Not really interested in it, not really thinking about it. I’d make youtube videos about being goofy, making abstract art with pastels attached to wooden swords etc (nice normal YT art stuff obviously.) In the masked 2 years that we speak about in hushed tones I saved up and bought an iPad.
I became a little bit obsessed with making recipe illustrations despite the fact that I barely cook, and when I do I’m more of a let’s-add-a-little-bit-of-this-and-a-little-bit-of-that person. But everyone was experimenting with something then, in that scary space where the only place you could find solace was within yourself. People were getting new hobbies and discovering what they liked to do and distracting themselves from crisis, with many of them turning to cooking… which meant that there was a lot of food photos on insta. So I started to draw them.
I loved trying to find ways to incorporate all of the different foods and spices into one illustration, often by depicting the finished meal somewhere in there and then flat-laying the rest of the stuff around it. Anyway… fast forward to now, about 5 years later, and I’ve started drawing fruits and vegetables again. Except this time I’m using less digital techniques and more messy brushstroke-y painting. And the reason why I started again with the veggies is because every Wednesday I take my toddler to one of his classes, and every week we pass by a little greengrocers with all of the beautiful, bright fruits and veggies in baskets laid out in front of the shop. And it makes me want to paint.
I woke up with an hankering to paint some carrots.
Interestingly enough, I’ve already mentioned another thing that I love to do in my art…flatlays! I’m sure every creator as taken a top-down photo of all of their supplies laid out meticulously around their finished work. It’s a classic and it’s so satisfying to look at. I got hooked on them during uni, where one of the projects was to take apart an appliance and draw all of the components that you disconnected. We took apart a speaker, and then I got to sketch an incredible array of different screws in size order, and that was it for me. I’ve actually talked to other students about that project and they all said it was boring and they hated it and I really can’t see why! One of my favourite things to paint right now is flat still life, lots of objects on tables all nice and neat.
Another thing that I love to include in my paintings are the epic side eyes. I absolutely adore to paint an inanimate object with a sassy side eye. And for this I blame my old retail job. I used to work at Sostrene Grene, and every so often they used to release a children’s collection that featured bunnies and bears and dogs all bearing the classic side eye. Each one looked like they were looking for someone to blame. So suspicious of everyone and everything. And now I can’t escape them.
These kinds of things might not seem very interesting to know when it comes to an Artist’s work, but even if they aren’t full of deep meaning, it still shows where the Artist has come from, and the kind of thing that they are interested in. After all, it’s these little things from different parts of my life that squish together and create the silly, whimsical paintings that bring me so much joy.
If you don’t know how to describe your creative work, here are some questions to start with:
What motifs do you often repeat within your practice?
Can you trace back to when you first started using these motifs or techniques, and can you figure out what triggered you to put it in your work?
What is it that interests you about that subject?
What would happen if you pushed that motif further and made more of it?
If you enjoyed listening to me ramble, please do subscribe! I don’t write a lot at the moment, because I mostly balance my time painting and looking after a toddler, but I am hoping to start posting longer articles at least once a a week!
Have a lovely week,
Bethy xx
