The Artist

ioche

I make art as a way of understanding what it means to be an individual.

ioche, a word from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, describes the loneliness of being an individual. It captures a feeling that has shaped both my relationship with myself and my need to create.

Artist statement

I have always found something both frightening and liberating about the fact that, no matter how many people I love or how many people love me, I will always be my own person. There is a loneliness in that realisation, but also a certain freedom.

I am at my most creative when I am alone, in the company of my own thoughts and observations. My work is rooted in learning to acknowledge both the isolating and liberating parts of individuality, and finding a way to live with them.

The practice

For a long time, I felt that my art needed to communicate something meaningful. While that remains part of my practice, I am learning to embrace making art simply for the joy of it.

I find therapy in the movement of a brush, the mixing of colours and the process of bringing something to life on canvas. Through oil painting, I explore both the feelings I struggle to articulate and the simple pleasure of creating.

ioche is an ongoing exploration of individuality, solitude, freedom and the process of learning to exist as oneself.