Denise Daffara
  • Home
    • Purchase/Contact
    • Join Mailing List
    • Blog
    • Links
  • About
    • Little dd
    • Testimonials & Kindness
    • Tea Cup Oracle
    • Free Gifts
  • Art for Sale
    • ETSY Store
    • Abstracts
  • Shop
    • Art Cards
    • Sitting With It Collection
  • Classes
    • Transforming Grief Mini Class
    • Paint with Me
    • Paint Mary
  • Commissions

blog : another
​'sip of my tea'

artist statement . . .

13/11/2013

 
This has been unearthed.. or stirred up during the Color of Woman course... I can't even recall if I've already shared this here on the blog (sorry for repetition if I have... maybe I better get some more iron suppliments to assist memory)
I've left it in an 'interview like format' because I really liked answering it in that way.. and editing down to a succint, slick, paragraph just is NOT my current happy place forte! 


One of the most interesting things for me to note when spending time with these questions.. was my subject choice and the feeling I desire to evoke in my paintings... I didn't know it at the time, but perhaps each one was healing a little part of me.... and I guess it goes without saying.. why there may be a tinge or more than a tinge of sadness in some of the faces that have showed up on my canvas's.  It's a curious path.  

WHY YOU MAKE YOUR ART,

I make art to ease the agitation I feel when I am not creating something. I make art to free a part of myself that needs this to be alive. For over a decade I made art as a celebration of fun and freedom, now I am learning to explore other avenues into my creative expression and not just when I am feeling happy.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO MAKE IT, 

I have been inspired by my teachers and other artists who have gone before me, there is something in me that positively lights up when I visit a gallery or exhibition, some artworks take me to a place of pure bliss and even a natural high at the energy and beauty I sense and feel in their presence.  The fact that an image can come through an artist onto a blank canvas is still a mystery for me and I love that. I have been drawn to images of feminine figures long before I started learning to paint in 1999.  Some I have been inspired by include : Chagall, Klimt, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Whitely, fashion designer Valentino, and icon Audrey Hepburn.

WHAT IT SIGNIFIES OR REPRESENTS, 

I would say most of my artwork at least in the first decade signified or represented a light and happy side of life, celebratory of feminine fun and freedom. It was in contrast to all of the negativity I had experienced in the preceding years before painting became such an integral and wonderful part of my life. Things such as alcoholism in a parent, domestic violence, hideously low self esteem, an abusive relationship, a cult-like church experience for many years, and the absolutely life shattering event of my sister being murdered.  I made no place to paint any of this. I did not know how to approach it creatively.

WHAT ABOUT FORMAL STUDY,

I have not engaged in traditional university study of art. Partly due to fear of not meeting the standards they require and partly due to just plain not wanting to fit into the deemed worthy parameters of academic artistic value and expression. To be judged and moulded and critiqued...(my inner critic has done a pretty savage job of that already) my fragile self just wasn't up for that. As I write and contemplate this, my current leaning is that my arrogant or bold self just won’t have it. Maybe one day when I grow up I might venture in to that, maybe not.

HOW YOU MAKE IT, 

I make my art mostly by a process of many layers, it undergoes fine tuning and transformations along the way until it reaches a place that I am satisfied to let it be. (I have had to adopt a sense of the 80/20 rule... if I can’t be 100% happy with it, then 80% is workable, and there is always another opportunity on the next canvas/board/paper). Perfectionism is a harsh master, and I cannot let her rule entirely because I would never deem anything as done or enough.

In 2013 I have been studying under Artist Shiloh Sophia McCloud who has introduced me to her Color of Woman Method, which is based heavily in Contemporary Symbolism.  It is a welcome extension to my previous style and subject - still working with the feminine, but in a richer, deeper, more soulful context I feel.

WHAT IT'S MADE OUT OF, 

I began by exclusively using acrylic on canvas, guided for 4 years with lessons from talented artist Peter Hales, in recent times I have been introduced to the wild wonderful world of art journaling by Effy Wild, thereby giving way to working on paper. Another new medium I am exploring and enjoying is working on wood.  

 WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU

Painting has become my sacred practice, it connects me to Source and celebrates all of my feelings and emotions. My passion is to connect with others in ways that have us both feeling nurtured, energised, validated and liberated. It means I have found my place in the world, creative expression is home to me, it’s not always easy and comfortable, but it’s where I feel drawn to, time and time again.


Tricia Mary Fahey link
13/11/2013 04:10:19 am

Oh, "I have found my place in the world", How absolutely wonderful that this has come to fruition and that so so many desire this on a conscious or unconscious level.
You have therefore Arrived and are willing just to BE within and without.
I am so genuinely happy for you
Therefore it comes to pass that the ripples you are creating on your pond... are most surely causing an ongoing effect and resonance for others and as the saying goes.... "Floating my boat..."! xx


Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    CURRENT MOON
    moon cycle
    Picture
    Denise Daffara Contemporary Art

    Picture
    moo cards = cutest little business cards ever!
    Picture
    A Sip of my Tea - My other blog.
    Sell Art Online
    Picture
    a sip of my tea
    Picture
    Creativitea Art Classes
    Picture
    click.. and go join the mailing list
    Buy my art
    Buy my art
    Picture
    Picture

    Visit Wild Soul Arts

    Archives

    January 2016
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011

    Categories

    All
    30:30 In June
    Art
    Art Class
    Art Giveaway
    Art Journaling
    August
    Bali
    Bliss
    Blogging
    Canvas
    Chakra
    Champagne
    Charity
    City Chic
    Commission
    Courage
    Creativitea
    Creativity
    Dark
    Donations
    Dreams
    Eagle
    Eat
    Emotions
    Exhibition
    Farewell 2011
    Fire
    Flora Bowley
    Freedom
    Free Spirits
    Full Moon
    Give
    Giveaway Winners
    Giving
    Grace
    Grateful
    Gratitude
    Gypsy
    Healing
    Heart
    Help
    Heron
    Honour
    Horse
    Inner Critic
    Intention
    Joy
    Leonie Dawson
    Let Go
    Life
    Light
    Love
    Loves Me
    Magic
    Mandala
    Manifesto
    Mary
    Mini's
    Mixed Media
    Morning
    Mother Daughter
    New Beginnings
    Overcoming Adversity
    Painting
    Petite Paintings
    Photo
    Play
    Pleasure
    Pray
    Prints
    Productivity
    Rage
    Red Bubble
    Red Chair
    Retreat
    Ring Of Roses
    Ritual
    Sacred
    Sadness
    Sark
    Self Publishing Website
    Sewing
    Singapore Expat Living
    Smash Book
    Speak Your Truth
    Spring
    Statement
    Stencils
    Story
    Story Board
    Strength
    Sugar
    Tea
    Telephone
    Throat Chakra
    Tim Ferriss
    Totem
    Visionary
    Wall
    Warm
    Win
    Winter
    Woman
    Wood
    Workshop
    Workshops
    Yeast
    Yoga
    Yummy


     Books I Love

    “There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.” 
    - Anais Nin

Please note the artwork displayed on this site is copyrighted by Denise Daffara.
​Please do not use any artwork displayed on this site without permission. Thank you.
Copyright Denise Daffara.
All rights reserved. 

  • Home
    • Purchase/Contact
    • Join Mailing List
    • Blog
    • Links
  • About
    • Little dd
    • Testimonials & Kindness
    • Tea Cup Oracle
    • Free Gifts
  • Art for Sale
    • ETSY Store
    • Abstracts
  • Shop
    • Art Cards
    • Sitting With It Collection
  • Classes
    • Transforming Grief Mini Class
    • Paint with Me
    • Paint Mary
  • Commissions