I’m sat here (in June 2024), about to relaunch my business and my new website/shop for contemporary abstract watercolour and textile art, after a year out. I needed that year. If you had told me at the start that it would be twelve months before I was ready to put my creations out into the world again, I probably would have pulled a face in shock/frustration/worry… but I needed that year.
With time and space, I was able to strip back all of the self-imposed rules I had put on myself and my business (and, most importantly, my art). I was able to create, freely. To reconnect with the joy and escapism I feel when painting and stitching. To find myself in the best headspace I’ve had in years.
It’s not that I fell out of love with the style I was creating before. More that this new direction found me, at the time I needed it most.
Why not?
That phrase has actually been my kind of mantra this year… ‘why not?’.
My mind is very good at coming up with all sorts of reasons why I shouldn’t do something (based on fear and self-doubt), but they’re not real reasons, are they?
Something I’ve found when creating art, time and time again, is that the more freely I create, the more joy and calmer I feel.
Illustrative, more detailed styles of artwork, take a different kind of focus and (dare I say it) perfectionism. There are, fair and unfair, expectations for things to look a certain way. All of which, for an overthinker like myself, doesn’t do my wellbeing much good.
Contemporary abstract art, however, takes me to a different place. It has this magical ability to capture something inside me; and, when I remember not to overthink things but instead ask the simple question ‘does it make me smile?’, I end up creating pieces full of joy. Sometimes that joy is the bubbly, inspired, excited kind. Other times it’s the soft, comforting, and peaceful kind. Either way, it’s special.
And so, here I am, ready to share some pieces of me (it really does feel like that sometimes when showing people what I’ve created!).
I hope you enjoy looking around my website, and perhaps finding a piece of contemporary abstract watercolour or textile art to bring a little extra joy into your home.
© Kerri Awosile 2024