I had envisioned a somewhat lengthy post on my old/new artistic activities, but whatever length of time I find now to put it down in writing, it’ll have to do (been wanting to write about this for months now)!
In short, I have returned to some of my childhood hobbies, in an increasingly stronger desire to lead a more analogue life. A day well lived is for me more and more one filled with authentic creativity, away from the screens and other digital whatnots. And so, even though I have maintained my knitting skills throughout the years (a scarf here, a scarf there), it was not until last year that I fully committed to not just wearable creations, but little knitties that bring joy and beauty. The more the design felt detailed and challenging, the more it became like a game to figure out how to actually create the thing I had in mind. Be it a knitted apple or a bat, a knitted decorative sign or a cat made to resemble a real-life feline, the creative process brought me immense joy, my hands feeling grateful for the soft, tactile usefulness I was giving them.
One of the highlights in this surge of creativity has certainly been my first exposition in France, which took place in February-March of this year at the BosKop gallery in Lyon. My creation “The Soft Otherness” was selected among other creations for a special exposition called “Xénomorphe” – to great success!
The portraits of animal companions also have their beginnings in my childhood. I remember sitting underneath the kitchen table and painting our cats and parakeets as some of the purest happy memories in my mind (sadly, back then we weren’t aware of the suffering of parakeets in unnatural environment such as people’s houses, even though we let them fly around our house). A few years back I wanted to paint a portrait of a dear friend’s dog, and after that I continued with our own rescue cats. Pretty soon, my friends started contacting me to immortalize their feline loves as well, so it’s been another type of wonderful challenge to try to capture a little bit of their specific essences and energies in a painting.
Of course, the brushes are all synthetic, and I also knit with only synthetic yarn fibers, some of whom are second-hand (the fillings of the Knittie Kitties are also synthetic), as it would be unjust to use wool and other things we steal from our fellow Earthlings. Anyways, I’ve assembled a small gallery below of my creations so far, while the title above is the name of my little artistic endeavour. Enjoy!
