MAYA DEW
"Since lockdown my work has become brighter and more vivid, I think in a way I was using my art to brighten my mood and bring positivity into my isolation. The colours in my patterns have been taken from nature, most of the colours seen in my patterns are actual swatch colours seen in the natural world, only when you really look so you see how saturated the colours are around you.
The patterns I have been making are inspired by where I went after the first lockdown, the sudden change from months of isolation to then being free to be outside really inspired me to create. It was interesting to still be inspired by my experience so many months down the line.
The memory of being by the beach and walking through forests stuck with me and the images and natural material I took home with me continued to recreate my experience in my mind. Being in the second and third lockdown I felt such a disconnect with nature especially with it being winter. It was this project that kept that connection alive and allowed me to still feel some form of positivity and hope, knowing that the end of lockdown will come and so will my connection to nature.
Creating work based on nature I also try to be sustainable and environmentally conscious, so in this work I have used second hand yarn and burlap found in charity shops and on eBay. I have also begun projecting a lot of my patterns onto things as there is no printing involved or wasteful materials."
What do you feel has been missing from recent virtual exhibitions?
"I guess it’s just the layout being clean. Also having enough publicity, lots of places don’t have sufficient publicity, posters need to be constantly shared & reposted."
"My art practice has been an escape this year. In all the anguish of isolation and change it has been my main constant, being able to create has got me through the hardest parts of this pandemic.
I think being so disconnected from the outside world and from the environment I have really tried to bring nature and natural connotations inside and into my living space by using it as inspiration for my work.
My art practice is quite contemporary and I mainly create installations and sculptures, however with lockdown preventing in-person exhibitions I find my work beginning to look deeper into the relationship art has within homes and I wish to begin creating work that is beautiful yet practical."