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The Grownup Child

Read the Artist Statement

What motivated me to create “The Grown up Child” mixed-media drawing body of work was a recurring event where every so often I would come across a grown up individual who appeared to embody a child like quality which emanated from their being. It was always a positive experience that would make me smile as though I just witnessed something silly. With time I came to relate this experience to witnessing a person in touch with their inner child. In 2004 I set out to create a series of mixed-media contemporary drawings with the goal of portraying adults who embodied such a quality.

In my thesis paper I argued that children possess a certain innocence that has not yet been affected by societal pressures. Their emotions are genuine, not yet influenced by predetermined standards and expectations. In order to depict this innocence I chose the child’s face as a metaphor for the Inner Child, the very core of our being; what Carl Gustav Jung referred to as our “original self”.

My research focused on medical and philosophical literature on the notions of the inner child, child development, and child education. My artistic exploration worked with two key parameters. The first one being the need to create a series of mixed-media contemporary drawings where the work would reflect two qualities of the human condition: fragility and adaptation. The second parameter was to make work that would reflect the personalities of friends I was drawing as well as themes I wanted to explore when working with models who were strangers.

“The Grown up Child” mixed-media body of work is a rich visual landscape which intertwines philosophical and esoteric themes. It captures the quality of beauty which emanates from within the figures, the beauty of innocence, wonder and imagination.