NATURE IS HER INSPIRATION VIVIENNE SCHADINSKY
AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST VIVIENNE SCHADINSKY
Tell us about yourself Vivienne
I am a fine artist and my work evolves through direct contact with nature. Born and raised in Switzerland I started my career as an interior designer. After my move to London I designed and styled sets, first for the theatre and then for film and television, before becoming a full time artist more than ten years ago.
The main elements of my work are the environmental projects. SUNRISE about endangered flower species, MAGIC HOUR about vegetable and fungi varieties in our food chain that face extinction and clean water awareness with SIN AQUA NON VITA. A clean air project is just shaping up.
The fragility of nature in the ongoing project A CURIOUS FRIENDSHIP and the CIRCLE and cycle of life are paramount. I observe nature’s subtle changes during the year with the knowledge of the 72 Japanese micro seasons. This is a continuous source to interpret the findings into my art.
The techniques I use most but not exclusively in my North London studio are brush and ink, printmaking, fine art photography, small installations and artist book making. Recently I became also absorbed in making small nature meditation clips FLORA.
Your greatest inspirations or influences.
My main inspiration is in the every day things that surround me. I feel lucky that I am living in a big city and being surrounded by nature at the same time. With a large shared front and back garden, where a previous head gardener from Kew Gardens grew many fascinating plant species and enormous rose hedges, the nearby parks Primrose Hill, Regents Park and the woodland of Hampstead Heath. Spending time in either of those places is part of my daily ritual. Living in Belsize Park with its abundance of flowers and trees makes spring here very lush.
I document what I see with my iPhone, a sketchbook or by collecting different species.
Thinking about nature, paying more attention to the present moment and being aware of my feelings while observing enables me to encapsulate this intuition into my work. This in return helps me to understand my incentive better and I feel reassured when I find a minimal composition - because within that lays the true beauty to me.
In a wider sense nature and a natural lifestyle plays into all of my life. Around twelve years ago this journey began as I was taught by an incredibly knowledgable Japanese holistic healer. I learnt much about nutrition, energy (stones/crystals/herbs), colour, nature (shinrin yoku/forest bathing), sound (birds and others), scent (essential oils) and how to incorporated this to support physical and mental health, which now influences my work significantly.
How has this year changed your creativity or how you see the art industry changing moving forward?
My creativity has changed in the respect that I think art plays an even more important role in communicating and raising awareness for the improvement of the environment than before. Most of my environmental art project have conceptualised more in-depth since the pandemic started.
The relative quick recovery of the natural world during the first lockdown in spring 2020 and how it bounced back, gave us a tiny glimpse how the world could look like without fossil fuels and how fast we could have cleaner air. How could we emerge out of the corona crisis into a healthier and cleaner world? I am aware that environmental campaigners warn of an easy misconception and that the picture is different across the world. I don’t want to simplify the situation.
But I hope governments seize the opportunity, when they reboot economies following the Covid-19 pandemic and that their economies and energies lean towards a more sustainable and resilient future.
The health of our planet should remain our first concern.
I am hoping that the themes in my art of renewal, perpetual movement and perfect imperfection can reassure us as much as the rhythm of nature.
Anything else?
My hope is to be able to show my work again in a gallery this year.
I would also like to develop my new venture further. Inspired by my professional origin as an interior designer and my wish to make my art more accessible to a broader audience, I made a selection of work available as prints in my online store Atelier Parallel. This is for people who wish to include affordable modern art more easily into their homes or who are looking for a unique gift. https://www.etsy.com/shop/AtelierParallel
As the name suggests this online shop runs parallel to my original fine art which will remain my main focus and is available on my website.
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