A Yorkshire Artist Blog: If you can’t be cheeky while you are young then when can you be…
As an Artist I spend my spare time building the confidence of young artists who have been knocked down by: teachers, parents, “friends”, bullies, etc. I do this because I know how it feels. I have spent my entire life thinking I am ugly and rubbish. It has taken me until I am 28 to realise that I am far from ugly (what even is ugly anyway!?), I can do absolutely anything I put my mind to and that I am one hell of an artist.
At the age of 23 I had a little girl, this is when I started looking at things from a different perspective, what do I want my daughter to be like: confident, happy, to know her capabilities, to be successful and if I am none of those things how the hell do I help her to become them? This triggered a self-healing process. I say self-healing, there was a lot of help from my partner and inspiration from people like: Steven Bartlett, Jessie J, Rihanna, Katie Piper, (Katie Kirby parenting wise because no one can build your parenting confidence like she can), there are so many more than this but I cannot list them all – actors (the characters they portray and their own lives) and music plays a huge role in keeping my mood up and my drive in full gear.
This brings me to my current project the ‘Inspirational People Portrait Series’, I have been an artist for 10 years and I am celebrating that by painting a portrait of each person who has inspired me. I am in the middle of painting Steven Bartlett’s portrait and contacting other subjects. Read more here: Yorkshire Artist Meets Steven Bartlett
The drawing…
Liberation, a friend who travels all over the world posted a picture of herself naked in the middle of a tropical forest near a freshwater pool and I thought, wow, now that is freedom and she looks absolutely stunning, but of course she did – she was happy!
These days we get so critical of everyone, calling the likes of Kim Kardashian every time she posts a naked selfie. What really is so bad? Should we not be celebrating our bodies, should we not be learning from the confidence of others? I am not saying post naked pictures of yourself everywhere – nope. I would just like to see less hatred, fewer keyboard warriors and much more love for one another.
“You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.” – Brad Pitt (Troy)
