Eimear Kavanagh – Featured Artist
Today we are interviewing Eimear Kavanagh, a textile artist with some great work that works fantastically as prints. Read a bit about her and check out some of her work below…
When did you get involved in art?
I enrolled in an Access course in Art & Design after many years of floating around not knowing what to do! Through this course I discovered my own style of work and direction which then lead me on to study Textiles and Surface Pattern Design, which I completed in 1998 at Bretton Hall University of Leeds. Following this was yet several more years of not knowing my self?! I began travelling around Asia and found my real passion for all things in India which then became a turning point for me. I returned to painting and designing at home from then on, built up a collection, set up my first show in East London, one thing lead to another and here I am today..
Where do you draw your influences?
I make contemporary designs which draw from traditional indigenous Indian themes. I feel that traditional art reflects aspects of cultural life and is present everywhere in India. My influence is this art and my work is very much based on this ethos. My designs often depict various themes taken from Hindu myth and religious iconography such as the sacred cow, representing Mother Earth with her nourishing milk, peacock feathers and flowers of the Indian subcontinent. I often try to reflect the symbolic forms of traditional Indian architecture, especially places of worship as well as intricate patterns such as Rangoli. Indian designs and techniques have normally been taught and passed down through families for generations. Fabrics adorned with beautiful embroidery, mirror work, beads and shells embellish their everyday lives. These very aesthetic elements are in my designs.
What inspires your work?
My canvas is a space for my memories to materialise. I need to give my abstract visual recollections a more concrete and tangible form. Through doing this, I can communicate the nature of my experiences gained through journeys in India, recreate the atmospheres that surrounded me and express my own individual perception of the Sub-Continent.
Do you have any long term goals with your art?
Most things seem to happen quite spontaneously. My desire is always to continue to return and spend time in India, to gain a deeper understanding of Indian Culture and find more inspiration on a personal, spiritual and artistic level. In terms of what I would like to create – this is an unknown journey for me, it is unpredictable, surprising, tough at times and totally blissful at other times. It is difficult for me to envisage what comes next or later, as it all happens in the moment. Change is perhaps of most importance to me, keeping ideas fresh, experimenting with new techniques, walking new paths and seeing new things.
