About the Artist
My journey as an artist is a reflection of my exploration into Self.
The interplay of Light and Shadow within my emotional landscape translates through my heart, mind, body, and Spirit and into my paintings.
I was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1972. Six years later, my family and I immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, and a new life free from Apartheid began. A freedom that would not be fully understood and embodied until much later in life.
The Art scholarships I received upon high school graduation would have opened the next natural chapter of my life as a young artist. But, instead, what ensued next was a 20-year journey that buried my Artist deep within. And although I have had a very successful full-time career as a Health Care Practitioner since 1998, the quiet call of the Artist persisted.
It took a profoundly painful life event in 2007 to force my journey inward. Within this transformative internal exploration, I returned ‘home’ to my Artist and enrolled in the Studio Arts Program at Capilano University in 2011. However, it was not until 2013 that I was introduced to my teacher and mentor, Anita Nairne.
In the sanctuary of her studio, I was guided back to my childhood Self and permitted to explore, feel, play, and purge all that was repressed for so long. Thru her Intuitive painting techniques, I birthed my true Artist into existence. This birth experience meant pushing against and breaking thru all the fears and limiting beliefs that had silenced my creative expression for so long.
The body of work created over the next five years inspired my first public showing in both 2018 and 2019 at Vancouver’s well-known Eastside Culture Crawl. An annual event that showcases over 400 local artists, allowing the general public access to Artists’ work within their studios.
Within the core of my Spirit lives my ‘artist’ both in the Fine Arts and Healing Arts. I continue to experience, grow and become increasingly attuned to this part of myself.
The dance between the Artist and healer within has been an inexhaustible source of self-inquiry. The more I explore my internal labyrinth, the more these two parts of myself merge, deepening a core quality – trusting my true voice with courage, passion, integrity, and purpose.
If you have found your way to explore some of my artistic expressions, I genuinely hope that it evokes positive feelings and inspires your own creative gifts to be fully awakened and honored.
With deep gratitude,
Teressa