Artist Statement/Bio Suzanne Laidlaw February, 2013
Creating art is living prayer for me.
As a child and teen, I enjoyed all things artsy: painting supplies, drawing materials, glue, coloured pens and pencils, markers, pastels, collage, knitting and crocheting! I spent my allowance in art stores. The trance-state I experience while in the midst of a bunch of craft supplies has been a transformative thread throughout my life. My life story and the landscape of my head and heart are recorded with the art I've created.
I’m now way past teenage hood and with excitement and awe, I’ve rediscovered my artsy side! It’s taken me a while to call myself an artist. I simply feel like a person who expresses her soul through a variety of means one of which happens to be putting strokes and smudges and other stuff onto a variety of surfaces. The progression has gone from dabbling, to hobby, to the informal study of various techniques, to a method of prayerful meditation, and now to the presentation of my heart through exhibits of the art I've created since 1997.
Each piece is an expression of the journey of my heart on the particular day it was created. Some pieces created over the course of days or weeks and sometimes months, show my heart’s progression toward community, self-love and oneness with God. I am more often than not surprised by what actually emerges.
I usually start with prayer and quiet, focused on releasing all sense of expectation. Then I settle into my studio space and let the art make itself by simply becoming the hand that is its mechanism for expression.
The process is quite physical sometimes and I forgo brushes and other implements often, so I use my hands a lot – my fingernails get dirty and sometimes I end up with smudges on my face and all the way up my arms! Sometimes I just have to get up and take a walk, to take a step back from what I’m doing so I can come back to it with fresh eyes.
Patterns of nature and natural shapes occur quite often; and I notice that as I progress as an artist and as a person, depth – actual and psychological – emerges. Some of the pieces draw me into them as holograms do and I see new motifs and messages surfacing which fuel my imagination toward new creations.
My heart is joyful when I hear how my art touches people. When they share what they see in it that I have not seen and how it helps them in their own progression, I am humbled.
Thanks for viewing!
Blessings,
Suzanne Laidlaw
www.awakenedandinspired.typepad.com