ALEKS ALLISON
I have dabbled in a lot over the years - oils, watercolours, inks, fabrics, drawing, writing, printmaking, comic drawing, bookmaking! - but currently, I am limited to just watercolours as I am traveling through Latin America! Hope to make oil paintings of my watercolour ones when I return home - for a colourful new exhibition.
I am really interested in exploring and understanding dreams, about acknowledging the importance of the visions our minds create when we are sleeping! Our minds are capable of so much.
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A lot of my art is inspired by dreams, visions, and memories.
I mostly paint female figures and generally, they are either self-portraits (not in the physical sense but in symbolic) or contain elements of my sister or mother (or other women I am influenced by). My mother passed away when I was very young and quite a few paintings contain her or show in abstract ways about how I have dealt with that over my life. I also paint a lot of things that contain references to mental health – I’m a massive advocate for being open about mental health, and also appreciating the highs and lows we all experience (because without them... we would be beige!).
I am also massively inspired by other artists such as Tracey Emin, Jean Michael Basquiat, Leonhard Cohens poetry, and of course my dreams and other peoples dreams. At the moment I am also obsessed with the desert, and so a lot of my artworks are desert based.
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Here are few from the exhibition I held in March this year...
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1. Mother Keeping the Fire Aglow. This was loosely based on a friends’ mums’ dream, and linked elements of a mother calling out to her children in an unconventional way. It was for my friend and her mum but it also had a lot of elements that made me emotional too. It was my mum calling out to me, and also me calling out to my mum.
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2. Wave Conjuror - this one was based on beach memories as a kid! My sister always said that when I got into the water the waves got bigger and so I had this idea that the sea welcomed me and maybe I had some special power.
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3. Mother, Sister, Desert, Stars. I have been creating this piece over and over for years, I don’t know where it originated but it’s an ode to my sister and mother and the painting is of an impossible place - where in my mind - they protect me.
The pieces for my exhibition were loosely put into a narrative, it only really made sense to me, but, it narrated the state my mind had been in for the month leading up to creating the pieces. I created them in isolation in my grandparents’ house and was so nice to be away from everything to really focus and project what my mind had been experiencing.
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My advice for young artists is to never stop experimenting! There are so many different forms of art and sometimes it takes a while to find your true passion. Don’t listen to anyone who says ‘Oh you can’t live off art / I don’t get art’ – that’s not the point. Art is a living.
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Please reach out to me with vivid dreams! They give me life and keep me inspired :)
@dreams_please
interview by: ella wylynko