Figuring it out in paint: visual storytelling and the imaginings of the heart

For this thesis, I’ve chosen to focus on three aspects of my practice: My first question concerns the narrative form in my work. How do processes of narration and their fictional possibilities help me navigate personal and collective poetics of transformation? Rosi Braidotti’s ideas about becoming and the role of the imaginary in the fluidity of the subject have been helpful for framing my inquiry. Secondly, I discuss my exploration of the materiality of paint and colour and what strategies I have been experimenting with in order to let these processes manifest a language of apparition on the surface. Finally I explore the inner landscape of my works and its recurrent motifs. What kind of stories am I painting? The psychoanalyst James Hillman and his writings about the retrieval of personal and collective storytelling in the form of images have been particularly inspiring and revealing of my subject matters.