Dreams & Memories is an online and virtual exhibition at Gallery Informal (hosted by the Meta Space Gallery). The exhibition explores and showcases unfinished work, sketches, and scrapped or rejected art from the artists in the show. Furthermore, the exhibited work is conceptually linked to the theme of Dreams and Memories.

The curator has chosen to omit any year or dating onto the works (apart from work which is shown in an interview) as removing this element turns these works into a memory that the viewer sees. These happened or were created; the date is not relevant as they are now a memory.

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Artist’s Involved

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Dorota Watkowska – Cara Marias – Yehia Seyam – Ilya Medvedev – Wanxi Lin – Max Wolf – Sherihan Khalil – Sophie Peschanel – Narciss – Aliaksandra Markava – Miss Noton – Roger Woodiwiss – Marina Trani – Nadia Thompson – Emily Greenwood – Fiona Stewart – Samina Islam – Dawn Beedell – RW Taylor – Catharine Clark – Kitty Reeves-Short – Sergei Shteiner – Angelina Selina

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Virtual Exhibition

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Dorota Watkowska

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I’m fascinated by the relationships between color and form, my work explores abstract expressions influenced by modern painters and the beauty of natural world. You will spot my art by bright, bold colors, simple forms and collage techniques.

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Abstract Forms
One of the sketches that explores relationships between balance, composition and colors.

Cara Marias

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I’m an abstract expressionist artist. I’m inspired by nature, the mystery of everyday life, and the beauty each natural being possesses. My paintings bring passion and a range of emotions by including texture, incorporating color theory, and a composition of various techniques. My goal is for the viewer to feel something, so I transfer my energy into each movement and brush stroke. An old college classmate came to my house with a suitcase full of painting supplies, and from that day, I found my passion. All I wanted to do was create. I started painting as an outlet for my inner feelings in 2020. The feelings from the first time I realized there was something that put me at peace and allowed me to escape from reality to create my own. I have feelings and emotions that cannot be described in any other form than ART. I learned that some feelings are best explained through expression. My use of acrylic, various materials, and pulling inspiration from nature and everyday life on canvas and incorporation of mixed media and different techniques to display my emotion.

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Picasso is she
I used a number of materials on this painting, including the softly draped fabric over her shoulders and the studded earrings to accentuate her bold facial features. She is a piece of art.

Yehia Seyam

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They criticized it for being too “out there” and “unconventional.”An excessive amount of “this,” “that,” Well, who cares, I say? The only goal of this piece is to please myself. I’m trying to convey the chaos and absurdity I observe in the world, and if it causes discomfort to others, then so be it. You should feel challenged, provoked, and perhaps even a little uneasy by art. “Isn’t that the main point?”

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Not Fair nor square
it articulates the absurdity and the chaoticness of the world we are living in visually in contrast of something more black and white something with a ”clear winner” like sports but with more and more emphasis on the expression of being in your face therefore, blending both to create an unconventional conventional piece

Ilya Medvedev

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As an artist, I am driven by a passion for exploring the human experience through various mediums, including oil painting, watercolor, and pencil drawing. My formal education includes a Bachelor of Education in Fine Arts from Beit Berl Art Academy and a Master of Fine Arts from Bezalel Academy, where I refined my skills in traditional and contemporary techniques. My early studies in Byzantine icon painting inform my understanding of color and form. Since becoming a freelance artist in 2011, I have exhibited my work in notable galleries across Israel, including solo exhibition in Start Gallery, group shows like “Cargo Cult” at MoBy Museum and others. My art reflects a blend of Realism and Expressionism, inviting viewers to connect with the emotions and narratives within each piece. In addition to my artistic practice, I founded the Ilya Medvedev Fine Art School, where I teach and mentor students of all ages. My goal is to inspire creativity and foster a deep understanding of the artistic process. Through my work, I aim to create a dialogue between tradition and modernity, encouraging reflection and engagement with the world around us.

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Jurgen, prisoner who killed his gravely ill wife out of compassion.
In 2023, I experienced an unsettling incident when the police mistakenly arrested me in the street, believing I was a wanted criminal. To verify my identity, I spent 31 days in custody, being transferred from southern Germany to Berlin and held in six or seven different prisons along the way. During this time, I shared cells with various inmates for periods ranging from a few minutes to several days. At one stop, I found myself in a waiting room with a 64-year-old man named Jurgen. Over a simple lunch of soup and bread, he recounted the tragic story of how he had killed his wife, who suffered from severe illnesses, using a pillow. Afterward, he attempted to take his own life by swallowing sleeping pills and setting fire to their apartment. Fortunately, firefighters arrived in time to save him, but he suffered severe burns and was later sentenced to 6.5 years for murder. At the time of our meeting, Jurgen had already served 4.5 years and hoped for early release. The cell was bright and warm on that July day, and two other prisoners were present. When I arrived at the prison in Nuremberg, I requested paper and a pen to recreate my memory of that encounter with Jurgen. He resembled a Santa Claus figure, with a long white beard, unkempt hair, and long nails. His teeth were rotten and gray, a result of prison medical policies that only allowed for extraction, not treatment. This sketch, created from memory on my bed that evening, became a poignant reminder of my time in prison. Upon my release, I received an apology and promised compensation, along with the drawings I had made during my incarceration, including this one that captured Jurgen’s story.

Wanxi Lin

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I’m Lin Wanxi, an artist from China! I like to use my own photos, my imagination, and books or movies to get inspiration for my paintings. I usually use the photos I take as the basis for my paintings, but from books and movies I prefer to experience the emotions in them, which I think are helpful for painting, and my imagination is often a fleeting thing, which I will write down and maybe use someday. The themes of my paintings have to do with self, emotions, social issues, etc. These are the things that interest me.

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Max Wolf

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In bodies of crossdisciplinary art, I seek to offer nomenclature with which one may find covert sociological force(s) enacted upon them spoken to; in a pivotal apex where the commodification of self is artificially offered a point of primacy, I desire to galvanize abstraction to expose the imbalance its force interjects into collective consciousness. I seek to demystify the self in favor of the collective, with testimony affected toward the queer and disabled experiences I inhabit.

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Premonitions of poesis – Video Art
A serially interpolated tableau of recollection and reflection; a model of the subconscious poesis as vehicle for analysis; a demonstration of the heart at work as a catalyst of parrhesia.

Sherihan Khalil

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Sherihan Khalil (b. 1983) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Dubai, UAE, whose work spans mixed media and photography. Drawing from over a decade-long career in education and consulting across Iraq and Afghanistan—regions often defined by conflict—Khalil’s art explores the profound resilience of the human spirit.

Her practice merges abstraction with figurative elements, weaving together internal dialogues that examine the artist’s dual role as a medium for energy and an active observer of it. Central to her creative process is the organic translation of energy onto canvas, enriched by historical research and imaginative reconstruction.

As a lifelong New Yorker, and then living and working across diverse cultural and geopolitical landscapes, Khalil’s work engages deeply with themes of historiography, decoloniality, cultural heritage, and mysticism. Her works invite viewers to contemplate the interplay between personal and collective memory, offering a nuanced perspective shaped by her unique journey and cross-cultural experiences

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Visitors 2021 – Graphite on Paper
Visitors 2021 is not representative of my typical abstract style – it is representative of a body of work that is personal and rarely submitted to galleries – the outcome of what I call ‘visions’. These visions are not typical dreams with jointed / disjointed stories and characters, but rather a snapshot of a vivid image with no auditory context, such as the one depicted in Visitors 2021. These visions need to be rapidly captured through sketch upon my waking to decipher or reflect upon before the memory of the vision dissipates. Visitors 2021 is a representation not just of the potential for other life forms visiting each other, but also the ability for visitors to surpass physical boundaries and communicate through dreams and visions, and the transience of memory.

Sophie Peschanel

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If I could live by one sentence, it would be the following. ‘Creation for creations sake out of devotion for the craft’. However, that’s not how being an artist goes and I am no exception to it. Truthfully, sometimes I wish I could just do something else. Something that doesn’t require me crying over my canvas twice a week, something, that gives security. That being said, the only thing that makes sense, that has ever made sense is to create. To write, paint and sew. To come up with yet another idea and make something out of it. Sometimes, there is no form of inspiration for months, but it doesn’t matter, because give me a pen and a piece of paper, and the world feels whole again, at least for a short moment. And if others could take only one impression out of the things I create it would be the following: Find whatever makes sense to you and stick to it.

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when we fall asleep where do we go – photographs of vestimentary artwork and scenography models
“When we fall asleep where do we go” is an exhibition concept, working round the general topic of sleeping and dreaming. Sleep was divided into five sequences: dream, dream that goes off, nightmare, sleep paralysis and insomnia. Each one of the sequences got their own room (model), providing not only the vestimentary look, but letting you fully dive into each of the feelings and emotional worlds of the sleep cycle.

Narciss

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Born 2000, Baku, Azerbaijan. Lives and works in Bali, Indonesia. Narciss is a multidisciplinary artist who works with painting, video, and AI-generated art. She enjoys experimenting with different materials and creating mixed media pieces that feel intuitive and deeply personal. Her art comes from a place beyond conscious thought, allowing forms and symbols to emerge naturally, revealing layers of meaning.

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Interview with Narciss

How did growing up in Baku influence your artistic practice—how does it compare, creatively, to living and working in Bali now?

Baku is the place where my earliest memories live. My art was born there—as a protest, as a way to escape a grey reality that often felt disconnected from its true nature. It was a response to a society where people seemed far from themselves. Creating was a way to carve out something real, something untamed within that structure.

Bali breathes differently. Here, nature doesn’t feel like an echo of something past—it’s alive, moving, wrapping around you. The textures here seep into my paintings, into the way I see color and shape. If Baku gave birth to my art as resistance, Bali is where it learns to transform, to flow, to embrace its own evolution.

How has your artistic practice evolved over time?

It started with ink—sharp, instinctive, immediate. Over time, that process expanded into new materials, larger canvases, and deeper layers of texture and color. The process has become a ritual in itself. I still explore the same themes—transformation, hidden structures, subconscious landscapes—but now they breathe, they burn, they shift.

You’ve described your process as intuitive and beyond conscious thought. Can you explain more on this process?

It’s like walking through a fog—I only see a few steps ahead. Forms emerge, dissolve, merge. Sometimes it feels like the piece is painting itself, like I’m just a medium for it to come through. It’s a lot like dreaming—images rise from somewhere deeper than thought. I follow intuition, symbols appear, and later I realize what they mean. Some of my works feel like they were waiting for me, like they already existed, and I just had to uncover them.

You mention you use AI-generated art. How do you mix traditional processes with AI?

I don’t see it as something separate from my process—it’s just another way to let forms emerge from the unknown.

Sometimes, I’ll feed pieces of my own work into AI and see what it reflects back at me—like a distorted memory, an echo of something half-remembered. I take those fragments and weave them into my physical process—painting over them, distorting them further, breaking them down. It’s a cycle of creation, destruction, rebirth. AI becomes part of that metamorphosis.

Do you see the AI as a collaborator, tool, or something else when you use it in your artistic practice?

AI is a mirror. A mirage. A ghost in the system.

It’s like another layer of my own subconscious, thrown back at me in unfamiliar ways. When I interact with it, distort it, merge it with physical materials, it becomes part of the ritual.

How do you view the role of AI within the art world changing in this decade and the next decade, where do you see yourself within this?

AI holds pieces of everything it has been fed—fragments of human creation woven together into something new. When we create with AI, we are reaching into a shared subconscious, shaping echoes of what has already been dreamed. 

I see myself on the edge of this transformation. The more artificial our world becomes, the more important it is to connect with what’s raw, intuitive, untamed. AI is part of the system, but it’s up to the artist to break it, to reveal something beyond it.

In Friends of the Night, what inspired you to the idea of “discovering a friend within yourself to guide you through your inner night”?

There are nights that stretch forever—when silence isn’t empty, but full of echoes. I’ve always felt that darkness holds something—not just fear, but guidance.

The idea of a friend within the night is about learning to move through your own subconscious, to find something comforting within the unknown. Maybe that friend is memory, maybe it’s intuition, maybe it’s a shadow of yourself that you once forgot. But it’s there, waiting to be found.

Were there any personal experiences or emotions that led you to create the artwork?

Yes, but I don’t think those experiences need to be fully explained. They exist within the piece itself. I will say this—I created it during a time of deep transition, when everything felt uncertain, shifting, dissolving. It was a moment of looking inward and realizing that even in isolation, even in darkness, there is something that speaks back to you.

You mention it’s a digital sketch for an oil painting—how do you turn the digital sketch into a traditional medium? Do you often find yourself changing things about a painting when converting it into an oil painting?

The digital sketch is like a first shadow of something that will become real. But when I start working with oil, it changes, breathes, rebels against the original plan. Oil has its own will. The way it moves, the way it dries, the way it interacts with the surface—those things can’t be controlled the way digital art can. So I let the piece evolve. 

How do you hope that viewers will interpret the artwork when it is finished—are there any specific emotions you are going for?

I don’t want to tell people how to feel. I think art speaks differently to each person—it finds them where they are, in whatever place they need to meet it. But if I could hope for anything, it would be this—that someone looks at it and feels something shift inside them. A memory, a forgotten dream, an emotion they can’t name. Maybe they see a piece of themselves in it. Maybe they don’t. But the most important thing is that it lingers, that it follows them, that it leaves something behind.

Aliaksandra Markava

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I believe (by my own example) that creativity and art can gently heal, calm, relieve stress, teach deep thinking, teach deeper feeling. Creativity is one of the most sublime manifestations of love.

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Interview with Aliaksandra Markava

In your statement, you have described creativity as a manifestation of love. Can you explain how love influences your creative practice?

Love for life, for your family, for nature – love can manifest itself in different ways, but at the same time it is one feeling. Which allows you to see the big in the small, teaching the art of living.

Love gives you the strength and support you need to create, live, and breathe. Love of nature makes you be more attentive. This provides a greater immersion in the atmosphere and details, which is transferred to the work. As a result, video art is atmospheric not only in its images, but also in its sounds. In Visual 2D works, it is easier to highlight the foreground and work out the background without boring your eyes with details if you immerse yourself in observing the relationship of light and shadow in nature.

Self-love helps you not to get hung up on works that don’t work out or didn’t work out well. The main thing is the process of creating the work itself. And later, the pleasure of how successful the result was. It is very pleasant when the result is liked not only by the artist himself, but also by other people. But it’s good when an artist doesn’t think about it during his work. It is important to devote yourself to the creative process itself. I really love those moments when it is possible to create precisely at the moment of inspiration, and not when there is time. Because painting, graphics, photo or video art primarily conveys the feelings and emotions of the person who worked on them. At the same time, I cannot say that successful works are obtained only when I am in a state of harmony.

For example, a household still life with laundry soap in a red basin was painted after one emotional argument. And the bright juicy red tones and lively reflexes on the contrasting wet white soap very accurately conveyed my emotional state, which made me work with sharper and faster strokes, not thinking that I could ruin the work in the process. The soap and foam turned out to be very contrasting to the bright background. Like tenderness and passion.

You also have to work quickly in the cold season. When you start to freeze, you work more precisely. Because of this, I really like pastels – they allow you to work quickly, but they can be different. More graphic, or soft and velvety when you need to mix colors. Oil pastels are very good in contrasting ways. On rainy, wet days, the contrasts are brighter, and sometimes it’s impossible to work with dry pastels outdoors. Oil pastels are good on such days – it’s much easier for them to convey the rich, saturated colors of wet nature, and I really love rain!

Laundry Soap (2022) [canvas, acrylic]

Firewood (2024) [oil pastels, pastel paper]

What personal experiences have let you to believe in the healing power within art?

It’s no exaggeration to say that returning to fine art helped me “gather my strength” much faster than I could have imagined.

After a series of painful life changes, it took a very long time to recover. But when it became possible to live close to nature, without being distracted by the noise of neighbors, and create, the restoration went much faster. Silence, nature and creativity work wonders! Scientists have proven that performing fine arts has a positive effect on health. And the quality of life, respectively. While drawing, endorphins, the hormones of happiness, are released.

And sharing my experience and my work with different artist communities has restored my faith in people.

Can you explain your creative process, how do you go from an idea to a completed work?

I really like spontaneity, but sometimes the plot is thought out in advance, and later during the work it transforms into something more or less successful. I am one of those artists who adhere to the proverb: “When you draw a branch, you need to hear the wind breathing.” That’s why I prefer simple subjects from nature.

I really like the regime time – sunrise (when I can get up so early) and sunset. You need to work quickly, with color. But what a relationship of color and light in the sky during sunset!

I really love working with pastels with such relationships, although I have tried other materials. I like the energy that comes from works done in the moment and spontaneously. Sometimes the next day, after taking a fresh look at the work, I can emphasize something to make it complete.

Are there any particular artists or art movements that have inspired you or influenced you?

The paintings by Jan Vermeer and Vincent van Gogh had the greatest impression and influence on me. When I looked at the paintings of these artists in the museum, it was only then that I clearly realized the meaning of the word “painting”!

If I take artistic trends, then, of course, the Impressionists. The way they conveyed light on their canvases. Monet, Renoir…

Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to see the works of another my favorite artist in the originals, but for many years I have admired his work and the way he conveys life and movement – is Katsushiko Hokusai.

On “Housewarming is not easy” and “Housewarming” – you’ve described that you found yourself having an insane amount of things. Does this create any reflections about the sentimental attachment to objects?

Yes, of course. This is not the first move in my life, but perhaps one of the most large-scale. And at some point, I just got tired of realizing how many more things and boxes I need to sort out. I just sat down in front of the stairs and looked at the pile of things. At that moment, my cat came and lay down importantly at the foot of the pile of things. At that moment, I remembered the lines from poem of my childhood : “…a basket, a box, a knapsack and a little dog…”. It made me laugh and inspired me to capture this moment in my life. In the process of drawing, my cat walked back and forth. And it seems to be there, but it doesn’t seem to be in the drawing. Like Exupery in The Little Prince, there’s a lamb inside a boa constrictor. The cat is under the stairs, but it is not visible)

The two worlds feel chaotic due to the scattered objects yet the medium and the colour of the work gives a calm and warm atmosphere. What brought you to use these colours for this mood?

The love of family, home, memories, the harmony of a simple country life and the equanimity of my cat. I also love my stairs very much, since childhood I have adored attics. There is a special comfort in them.

The mystery of the invisible cat and the room above the stairs can be guessed in the purple and blue accents. And warmth, light and comfort are in yellow and ochre ones. I generally believe that comfort and mood can be conveyed primarily by light. Light is warm here.

What feelings do you want viewers to experience when viewing these two artworks?

The uniqueness of the moment. The tenderness of memories. I want people to appreciate every second of their lives and their loved ones. I’m sure we’re all very similar in simple things. And our houses, too. Books, old records, children’s notebooks, photo albums, paintings, furniture, a favorite carpet – in such little things lies the comfort of home.

Do you have any upcoming projects that you’re excited to share?

Recently, I’ve turned my attention to video art. I also want to experiment with ceramics, textiles, and textures of different materials.

Last year, I experimented with mixed media based on dry pastel graphics. But not in a realistic way, but in an abstract manner. Works from this series are already participating in exhibition projects.

A Girl With Matches (2024)

Miss Noton

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Coming from a background of modelling, Rachael has created numerous artworks based on self portraits and other models and life drawing models. Her idea is to celebrate women in all their forms.

Rachael didn’t study until she was 27 at college in Dumfries and Galloway when she took a HNC class in art and design. She then became a mother of two little girls, and now she does everything she can to enjoy her art and make sure the girls grow up loving themselves. She is now focusing primarily on work in paintings and mixed media, showcasing her work around her local area, looking back she didn’t have much self worth in modelling but with her art she ignites some kind of past trauma release every time she paints herself. She loves strong women, and wants to fights the daily battles within, as well as society to help women grow and love themselves through art.

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Interview with Miss Noton

What inspired you to transition from modeling to creating self-portraits and life drawings?

It began when my mental health went a little bad and was a bit burnt out from travelling all the time, so I moved to Scotland and decided to try drawing again which I hadn’t done properly for a few years, but when I discovered my love for painting and drawing bodies I realised I absolutely loved doing this, I then started drawing myself which was interesting, I took photos of myself posing which is similar to what I used to do to become a good model, and used these photos as references for painting and drawing, it all started there and I’ve never looked back.

What does celebrating women in all their forms mean to you personally?

I’ve tried losing weight hundreds of times which never ends nicely because it’s a self destructive way of telling yourself your not good enough, and I also had body dysmorphia so I stopped trying to lose weight and focus on the good parts of my self. When I had my baby in 2019, I had put on weight inevitably and though I looked different, I painted my body and somehow I taught myself the worth I needed all along. So painting bodies in different shapes and sizes means a lot to me because it’s telling ourselves and helping other people see their worth.

Can you share the journey of deciding to study art at the age of 27? What challenges or discoveries did you encounter during that time?

I ended my modelling career at 25 so after two years of soul searching I wanted to go to college, I had the right mindset to try something completely knew but creative still, I always wanted to go to college when I left school and study art but it didn’t happen until late 20’s because I just didn’t know how much I wanted it until then, and of course I was still modelling all those years after school, but it was hard because I got pregnant in my first year, and had to go back after a years break. There’s good and bad in starting late at studying, one good point is that I’m taking my learning about art and the way you can experiment more seriously and at the same time having fun.

What is your creative process when starting a new artwork?

Unlike many big artists I hear about and have studied about at college, I just do what I want when I have a canvas or paper in front of me, I use my intuition mostly, and just see what happens! I usually get visions of a piece of art, I sometimes have dreams with some amazing detailed or abstract paintings, but it’s quite hard to create the exact same thing you’ve seen in a dream.

Can you explain more on the connection between your paintings and releasing past trauma?

Yes, I have had a bit of trauma from when I left my modelling career by having bad experiences, my body was left as a piece of meat after this industry, so after painting myself and letting go of all kinds of mentality which is what it’s supposed to look like, I managed to create something for the world to see which was my body in art form. I am studying in my spare time art therapy, which is very interesting, and a lot of it is just letting go when painting and seeing what comes up which I suppose is what I do naturally anyway, so a lot of healing has come from me through just actively painting anyway!

Who are some of the strong women, either within your personal life or history, who inspire your work?

When I went to an exhibition in Edinburgh with college I saw the artists work by Jenny Saville, her work was absolutely incredible to see in person, I don’t know her but she inspired me greatly to do what I do now, just the rawness of her paintings, the abruptness of her mark making and subject matter.

As someone who loves fashion I am absolutely incredibly inspired by the woman who discovered pink fashion !! Vivienne Westwood. Can’t tell you how much I loved her. Also JK Rowling! What an inspiring lady who started her career sitting in cafes writing Harry Potter.

I also am inspired by Kate moss who started her career when she was 15, an incredible lady who has gotten so so far by just plainly believing in herself.

Are there any societal challenges faced by women do you hope to highlight through your work?

Yes being perfect is too much on a woman, there is just so much out there where you’re supposed to get plastic surgery or lose weight or whatever to become beautiful. I want to help women see themselves as beautiful by them seeing the work I do. There is nothing wrong with lumps and bumps etc! Women are real people with incredible bodies. I did a pregnancy series and exhibition which captured my body changing through my second pregnancy, it was very healing, I hope women can appreciate this and see the beauty in themselves.

What kind of feedback have you received from women who have viewed your art?

When I did an exhibition in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway I left a sheet of paper for feedback on my art and had some really beautiful comments. I feel it’s important for me to keep going with the natural bodies, because sometimes I like the fashion side of art as I was a fashion model, but I do love seeing women who have curvy or different bodies to what’s ‘normal’. I have had some nice comments especially with the colour ways and expressionism within my art.

What has been the most challenging part of your artistic career?

Believing in my self worth, I think it’s hard to remember you can achieve what you want but obviously with some conditioning when I grew up I didn’t believe I was worthy of doing anything like be an artist. Especially as it’s so personal to you, it’s a self expression.

Do you have any upcoming projects that you’re excited to share?

I have an exhibition in creetown, Wigtownshire, Scotland the same time as this exhibition, it’s about women’s lives and women’s art, and it’s all about the difficulties women go through and celebrating and supporting women. It’s a brilliant exhibition, and I’m very proud of myself for being part of it. I also have a workshop during it called ‘self love in self portraits’ where you basically draw or paint a picture of yourself. And I’ll guide you into an inward belief of your worth and love for yourself. I have many more of these workshops coming up as well as exhibitions of self portraits.

Roger Woodiwiss

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Screen 1: Coco & Co 2024 104 x 61cms Overpainted transfer prints, acrylic and ink on battened plywood.

This is the first in a series of paintings based on the form of a mobile phone. I see the screen as a ‘blank canvas’ on which imagery from far and wide and the present and the past can be juxtaposed to make an imagined situation, a frozen moment.

It has recently been rejected from the Wales Contemporary Open Call.

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Marina Trani

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I am a painter of Italian origin, living in London. In my practice. I often investigate autobiographical themes related to my own professional experiences and identity. I am also a trained portrait artist and love capturing people stories and emotions.

As a female scientist, I have worked in leadership roles within male dominated organizations where women are frequently underrepresented and undermined. I often investigate and challenge persisting patriarchal cultures and workplaces. In my series of portrait paintings – “The Rise and Fall of the Corposaurs” – I have highlighted and subverted, through humour and imagination, unresolved issues of sexism and gender discrimination in male dominated board rooms while projecting the viewer towards a better future.

In my latest work, I am focusing on autobiographical themes such as my own identity and related separation events. I often use the fluidity of water and water based metaphors, as a sort of prism to describe and amplify emotions and to express the need to stay connected with my family.

While painting is my most usual artistic language, I am increasingly adopting a multitude of approaches ranging from painting to installations and interactive creations. I am interested in welcoming the viewer into my world in an engaging way by creating a magical experience, with objects or places assuming superpowers and becoming identity defining.

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Nadia Thompson

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BIOGRAPHY / STATEMENT

Nadia Thompson (nee Zedan) produces bold, meaningful artwork on paper, canvas, and clay. Her unique creations are a fusion of vibrant colours, intricate patterns, and profound symbolism. Working across different mediums, Nadia brings her artistic vision to life, captivating viewers with her fun, expressive and thought-provoking pieces. Much of Nadia’s work focuses on feminism, mental health, body positivity, motherhood, and the environment.

NOTABLE WORKS

In early 2024, Nadia was selected for a 3-artist exhibition in the North of England celebrating neurodiversity in the arts. Her environmentally-themed piece, In Nature’s Way, was selected as a finalist in Explorer’s Against Extinction Sketch for Survival 2023 and her series on post-partum body positivity was featured in T’Art Magazine. Nadia was recently commissioned by Make Merton Merry, a council-backed initiative in South London working with local schools, to create inclusive artwork focussed on unity in sport. In Summer 2024, Nadia was co-opted into the Bethlam Artist Collective, and is currently working to raise funding for a collaboration with Bethlam Arts Gallery and The Museum of The Mind to create archival work based on the old records at Bedlam.

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Emily Greenwood

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My aim is to produce visually stimulating silkscreen prints that intrigue the viewer and hopefully enable them to establish a narrative for themselves. Although I do have my own reasons behind each work and know what it means for me, I do not wish to give an obvious explanation for the work as I created it to remain ambiguous. I created the works as a series, and with the intention of them being viewed as a sequence, although they can also be interpreted as individual images.

My work explores the notion of dreams and hallucinations, or scenarios that could represent either of these. This stems from a fascination I have with listening to people’s interpretations and recollections of their own dreams, and the bizarre inner workings of our subconscious. When we dream we have no control over what our minds choose to show us, and I like to play with this vulnerability. As my work has changed and developed, I have built upon a ‘character’ as a way of creating a protagonist which appears in nearly all the works, sometimes multiple times in the same print. This evokes ideas surrounding doppelgangers, identity and ambiguity. I often work with vintage photographs/retro imagery, taking images from theatre, cinema and the domestic setting, acting as a reference to memory and the past. I take inspiration from a variety of artists, mainly photographers of the surrealist tradition such as Francesca Woodman, the film work of David Lynch and Louis Bunuel, and the collage juxtapositions of Sigmar Polke. All of these artists work with narratives and play on ‘dream stories.

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Interview with Emily Greenwood

What was it that inspired the title “Some People Have Real Problems”?

Around the time I produced the work, my parents were going through a separation, and I’m an only child so this was quite a significant time in my life. Music and lyrics heavily influenced my work during this time and I listened to a lot of Sia, who has an album by the same name.

Can you explain your process to staging and capturing the scene in the prepatory photo screen?

Often I will try to capture the images I need for the screen in one go, when I feel happy with them I will experiment with them in photoshop and play around with scale/composition before transferring the image onto a silkscreen.

What is the process of moving the details of the photographs you take into the silkscreen prints?

It depends what kind of scene I am trying to portray. Usually I will stage a scene using as much natural imagery as I can, often I will look back through previous photos I’ve taken and see if there are any that are suitable. Only if I cannot find one close enough to what I’m looking for do I search for found images.

How do you decide which elements of the photograph you retain, enhance or change when creating the silkscreen print?

Again it varies, usually I will ‘drop in’ images of my character into whatever setting I have photographed to see how it looks. I usually enhance facial features if there is a person in them, sometimes I make them slightly blurry or distorted to enhance the dream-like quality but normally the images have to be sharp in order to create a good quality print.

Are there any specific techniques or tools you use in your preparatory photographs for silkscreen prints?

Obviously they all have to be greyscale, and usually I will enhance the contrast significantly so that it creates a strong print. Especially small details as these don’t always translate well into silkscreens.

How do you conceptualize an idea, emotion or a tone of a work before starting it?

This is usually a work in progress, and sometimes I get a feel for what I want the tone to be while I’m actually producing it.

How often do you revisit or rework your preparatory images before deciding that they are ready for the silkscreening?

This varies, usually they don’t need reworking as such as I try and make sure I’m happy with it as I’m creating the screen. I also often have to work quickly as most of my work is based on dreams and I like to try and create the screen while it’s still fresh in my mind.

Fiona Stewart

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Fiona’s work examines how landscapes tied to our core memories become fractured in times of crisis and explores the connections between the environment and internal states of being, or in this case dreams. Each piece seeks to evoke the complexities of our human experience. Each brushstroke and composition serves as a visual narrative, inviting viewers to contemplate the shifting dynamics of beauty, fragility, and transformation within our surroundings. Working primarily on canvas, glass and paper, Fiona combines abstract marks with textural layers to create pieces filled with a rugged evocative energy.

In 2023 I began exploring how memory could be an imprint of an unsolved image: like a polaroid or roll of film which has not been developed.
I used rollers and ink to try and capture an immediate depiction of a memory and allow the viewer to ‘fill in the gaps’. I had intended to create colour series of these pieces, but felt like they didn’t quite fit into the overall theme of the rest of my work which dealt more with landscapes.

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Samina Islam

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As a textile artist, my work draws from my experiences across diverse cultural landscapes. I explore the societal perceptions of women’s roles, identities, and responsibilities. Women are the threads binding society, yet they are often portrayed as fragile and prone to unravel. My practice challenges these notions, highlighting their resilience and strength.

Around the time of a family loss, I began exploring Arabic calligraphy, focusing on the word “Skoon” (relief). The act of embroidering this word became a meditative practice, but external demands prevented me from completing it. Behind the word, I started working on a geometric pattern inspired by Islamic art. This piece represents my identity and my way of finding strength in every situation. Later, during the Gaza conflict, I embroidered a map of Gaza on gauze. The material’s fragility mirrored the region’s vulnerability while also symbolizing its resilience.

These unfinished works embody the intersections of grief, responsibility, and artistic expression. They speak to the realities of life’s interruptions and the struggle to create amidst adversity. In their incomplete state, they are artifacts of resilience, reflecting stories that remain unresolved yet profoundly meaningful.

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Interview with Samina Islam

How did your experience across diverse cultural landscapes influence your artistic practice and the mediums you use in your work?

My artistic practice has been shaped by a journey through different cultural landscapes, from my early years in Pakistan to growing up in Germany and now living in the UK. These experiences taught me about adaptation and rediscovery. Each place carried its own rhythm and textures, which subtly shaped how I see identity, belonging, and memory.

As a child in Germany, I stitched my name in Urdu for a school project, trying to hold onto a sense of self in a new place. Later, I found myself captivated by the resilience and creativity I saw around me in a post-reunification Germany, where identity was constantly being reimagined. These moments stayed with me, and they echo in my work.

I explore form and materials, often letting them speak for themselves. Threads, textiles, and gauze hold their own stories while I map mine on top of them. There’s always this unspoken dialogue between the materials and my process – one that’s deeply connected to the themes of memory and belonging.

The word “skoon” has become a meditative focus for you. How does the act of embroidering specific words affect your emotional or mental state?

The word skoon, meaning relief in Urdu, feels like a bridge between past and present. It carries the tenderness of my mother tongue, and stitching it isn’t just an artistic act; it’s deeply meditative, almost like a whispered prayer. Whether it’s skoon in Urdu, an English word, or a verse from the Quran, each stitch feels deliberate and grounding – a moment of stillness within motion.

Embroidery has a rhythm that mirrors healing. The repetition allows me to process emotions while connecting with something larger than myself. Seeing intangible feelings transform into something tangible, something I can touch, offers a profound sense of clarity and peace. Through these acts, I reflect on my identity, my connection to language, and the emotions I carry across cultures.

Can you explore the creative process of the work “Relief” if it were to be finished?

“Relief” exists as an idea – a dialogue between tension and release. If I were to complete it, I imagine layering embroidery to create a sense of depth, each thread holding its own story. The patterns would balance fragility with strength, reflecting how healing unfolds in layers.

I often leave parts of my work unfinished, embracing the idea that healing and understanding aren’t always linear. Unfinished work feels open – it allows space for others to bring their own interpretations and experiences. I think other artists and viewers might resonate with this tension between striving for completeness and accepting imperfection.

The finished piece would weave textured fabrics, Islamic patterns, and symbolic elements to speak to the hidden, layered nature of relief and peace.

What challenges did you face when making the work and with textile art in general?

Working with textiles is always a delicate balance. Materials like gauze can be fragile, tearing under the wrong tension. At the same time, textiles hold immense personal and cultural significance – they invite touch, memory, and nostalgia.

The challenge is making these materials carry the weight of the emotions I want to express without overwhelming them. There’s also the balance between the tactile intimacy of the medium and the universality of the message. These challenges, while frustrating, push me to adapt and trust the process.

What do you hope viewers will take away from the work?

I hope my work creates a quiet space for introspection, where viewers connect with the themes of resilience, identity, and healing. Through layers of embroidery, the symbolism in the materials, or even the imperfections in the threads, I want them to feel a shared humanity.

In my previous works, like “I AM” (2022) and “Against the Odds” (2022), I explored Muslim women’s identities using text, portraits, and Islamic patterns layered with loose threads. Those pieces sparked conversations about shared struggles and resilience, and I hope to continue that dialogue here.

Leaving parts of my work unfinished also invites viewers to reflect on their own journeys – the challenges we face, the strength we find, and the understanding that healing is rarely straightforward. If a viewer walks away feeling a moment of connection or understanding, then the work has done its job.

Can you explain the process of embroidering the map of Gaza on gauze?

Embroidering the map of Gaza on gauze was an emotional and intentional process. Gauze, with its fragility and transparency, symbolises both vulnerability and healing. It’s a material that holds historical and cultural significance, making it the perfect medium for this piece.

I started by carefully sketching the map onto the fabric and planning each stitch to avoid damaging the material. The act of stitching became a way of remembering, where each thread represented the resilience and strength needed to endure. It wasn’t just about creating a visual piece – it was about weaving together memory, identity, and hope into something tangible.

What do you want viewers to reflect on when they engage with “Gauze”?

Gauze is about the fragility of life and the resilience of the human spirit. Its transparency invites viewers to look beyond the surface and consider the invisible wounds we carry as individuals and communities.

I want them to reflect on how we hold onto personal and collective histories – histories often marked by pain but interwoven with strength and hope. The work doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it provides space to contemplate the complexities of resilience and how we rebuild, even when scars remain visible.

Do you plan on using gauze in future work?

Absolutely. Gauze resonates deeply with me because it’s more than just a material – it’s a metaphor for healing, vulnerability, and the layers of identity. Its historical and cultural associations make it a powerful medium for exploring themes like trauma, memory, and resilience.

In future work, I hope to push its possibilities even further, combining it with other materials and techniques to delve deeper into ideas of repair and connection. There’s still so much left to say with gauze.

Dawn Beedell

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As an Energy Artist, I am deeply influenced by a strong connection to nature and my daily meditation practice. My creative process is quite unique. I connect with the energy of the world around me, both seen and unseen, to create visual representations of that energy.

My paintings are a celebration of the incredible power of nature and the energy that flows through everything in our universe. I love exploring this invisible world of energy, frequency, and vibration that gives everything its unique life force. Through my art I strive to give visual form to the energy that permeates everything around us, but my art is more than that, it is intended to empower, enlighten and inspire others and is perfect for meditation, healing practices and creating focus and transformation. I believe that the energy held within the final artwork is a powerful tool for healing and can be transferred to the viewer, indeed this is my ultimate goal and motivation in creating my paintings.

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Interview with Dawn Beedell

What first inspired you to become an Energy Artist?

I first became aware of energy when I began to recover from a period of depression. I started painting in a different way, creative, experimental and colourful. It no longer mattered to me to copy and make representational work, I was drawn to be more expressive. After reading ‘The Marriage of Spirit’ by spiritual teacher Leslie Temple Thurston I settled into meditation one day next to a stream and asked what the energy of acceptance looked like and the imagery started to flood into my consciousness. It was exciting and urgent so I grabbed my paints and recreated what I was shown.

How does your meditation practice influence the themes and direction of your artwork?

My meditation practice is very important to me. In meditation I can receive downloads of information either auditory or visual or just clear knowing. I always journal and sketch after meditation so that I have lots of ideas to come back to. For example my next body of work found its direction from a few words I was given in one meditation which were ‘Anthropocene’ and “New World Epoch’. Subsequently I follow my intuition and signs and synchronicities to give flesh to the idea.

Can you walk us through your creative process – how do you connect with the seen and unseen energies to create a new artwork?

I connect in to universal energy through meditation and ask to be shown what the energy looks like, of a place, person, emotion or object and then wait for the vision. Sometimes the vision comes as a flash and from that I am able to create the energy art, translating the vision through paint, pastels and pencils into reality. I work out the logical steps to recreating the vision that holds the energetic structure I was shown.

Sometimes I do not get the vision straightaway. I have to start with what I am shown and then reconnect and ask again so I can build up the painting in stages.

Another way that I create my energy paintings is to prepare for painting with my art materials ready and a blank page. I go into a relaxed state and let my hand start to draw or paint directly onto the page. I do this without bringing my mind into it, trusting that I am being guided to reproduce the energy.

What emotions do you hope viewers will feel when engaging with your art?

My art contains the energy I meditate on and each painting vibrates from a place of unconditional love, which always radiates truth. I hope the viewer will feel what the paintings are conveying to them on a personal level, whether that is gentle and compassionate energy or powerful and transformative energy, whatever it is they are in need of in terms of healing or guidance.

Can you share any stories from people who have used your art for meditation or healing? Or any viewer reactions to your work?

I have used my own art to help heal from old wounds, bring up buried memories and beliefs and even look at blocks I have. Visual expression is just one way of healing and it does this through conscious or unconscious processing.

Client feedback: I was so impressed by your art that it has prompted me to create a meditation space in my kitchen that I can use each morning. The painting will feature prominently in my practice. Thank you for creating this beautiful work!

The painting I purchased is so uplifting it literally vibrates with energy. I have it pride of place on the wall of my reiki practice.

Where do you see your energy art evolving into the future? Are there any new techniques or mediums you’d explore with energy art?

My ultimate objective is to empower, enlighten, and inspire others. To raise awareness of just how powerful we are. The world is made up of energy, from the greatest galaxy to cells in our bodies and energy can be changed. We can change and take control just by deciding to. I would like to explore making my own art supplies from natural materials and pigments as I already love to use water when I am painting from waterfalls, streams, oceans and lakes.

(on Solitary Dawn) What does the act of being both the viewer and the subject of the dream mean to you on a more personal level?

I am looking out at the world from the solitary place I have always known. I was so used to this way of being that I perceived it as my greatest strength. From my stand point the world looks expansive and peaceful. Yet in my dream I am observing myself with sadness, I look lonely and isolated and I saw clearly, in my dream during my healing process, that it was also my biggest trap.

How do you interpret absence of others within the landscape? Does it create the emotions of freedom, loneliness or something else entirely?

The absence of others signifies total peace to me. If there is no one else, I have complete and total control. Put other people in the landscape and there are too many things out of our control. Isolating myself (my inner world and the real me) gave me a survival strategy, ensuring no one could get in.

Do you see dreams as a source of guidance or simply reflection of inner thoughts and emotions?

I see them as both, they can guide you and help you to reflect on beliefs that you hold, conscious or subconscious. I think dreams are our higher self, receiving guidance and direction and also putting things into order and perspective to make sense of ourselves and the world.

If you were to expand on Solitary Dawn- what would you add or the next scene look like?

I would start to journey through the landscape and see where the next scene took me, I would look at the sadness and see what was underlying that and so on until I get to the raw, base emotion and I can bring it into the light. Negative emotions are energy too and can be transformed, once they are seen.

RW Taylor

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Alumni of Leeds Arts University and member of the Leeds Print Workshop, the artist work in a variety of media, often focusing on print methods including linocut, etching and screen printing. They exhibit and illustrate, mainly children’s story books including their own. Their new book ‘Never Stop Asking Questions!’ has just been released. They actively promote children’s creativity, imagination and a little daydreaming (and hopes to encourage you too).

I cannot quite recall what the overall aim was of this particular sketch, but it was part of a series of sketches I made using simply a biro pen. I work with young children and was illustrating how you don’t need lots of, at times expensive, art materials to create their own artwork. Looking back I cannot help but wonder if this sketch actually subconsciously led to an illustrated story I worked on quite recently entitled ‘Sleepy Sadie’, from my book of stories and rhymes called ‘Never Stop Asking Questions!’, which I finished up illustrating in a variety of media including drawing, painting, linocut, etching, screen printing, photography and collage. I guess the message is also – never throw any ideas you have away.

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Catharine Clark

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Over the last twenty years I have worked as an independent community arts practitioner across various settings including healthcare, education and in community. I have used puppetry, 2D and 3D media, textiles and storytelling as creative mediums. More recently I have focused on traditional Scottish crafts of spinning and weaving with references to natural landscapes and sense of place.

Art and Craft Shop Proprietor – last year set up a community art and craft shop on the Isle of Cumbrae in North Ayrshire, Scotland. I ran various heritage craft workshops, the shop was also a creative community hub and exhibition space. I enjoyed skill sharing and working collaboratively with other artists and members of the community. I have exhibited various mediums of artwork including 3D sculpture, textiles and mixed media in various galleries across various counties over the last twenty years.

I am particularly interested in the transformative power of art and currently creating environmental art across the Outer Hebrides, at the same time as exploring and a sense of place in my surroundings . I use found materials in the natural environment, upcycle where possible and seek to transform waste into art that blends into the landscape. I am passionate about art as a vehicle for personal transformation, as well as being a tool for social cohesion. I enjoy working in collaboration with other artists and those
discovering their artist within. Art to me is a process of discovery, of unravelling what essential to life, without with a therapeutic value that is immeasurable. It is my joy, my journey and part of the very fabric of my life and I love sharing this with others through offering up a variety of art and craft workshops.

These seaweed assemblages were placed in the landscape on crofting land on the Isle of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Through studying the history of the Uist Isles, I discovered that seaweed was used to make a kind of rope and used in horse husbandry. When dried it offered a strengthened cord. Looking into the history of the Scottish Clearances, and the rise of modernism, which now cause agricultural machinery to lay waste on croft land, my assemblages were a kind of homage to the history of the islands. I left the pieces in place that are now weathered and beaten by the fierce winds here. I also made a seaweed weaving, which started as rich in fluid and over time calcified and loss its fluidity. It also smelt too musty to keep, so it is returned to whence it came, the sea.

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Kitty Reeves-Short

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This project looked at photo manipulation in response to memory retention, how we recount our memories, how they become ever-changing and how the mind can switch narratives for ourselves. To show this portrayal of changing memories I used scratch animation, a techiniue in which film negatives are manipulated and drawn on. By using my old 35mm film negatives, my direct memories, I bleached, scratched, warped and painted each frame to redirect the narrative of these memories.

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Full Video Work:

Sergei Shteiner

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I am a beginner artist with just one micro-exhibition in my CV at Little Window Galerie in Berlin (https://www.thelittlewindowgalerie.com/). Previously, I mostly worked with (visual) poetry and practiced programming in my free time. One of the main goals of my art is to bring a smile to the viewer’s face.

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Angelina Selina

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Hi, I’m Angelina Selina. My main passion is photography, through my pictures I express everything that is in my head and that worries my greedy before new thoughts. My work is always a stimulus to self-knowledge and going beyond one’s capabilities. My inquisitive mind and the greedy desire to create photoculture that can generate questions in people’s heads and bring them to dialogue with themselves is the main task. My photography skills are a long way in my life, but only ten years ago I realized that I can not just take pictures, but also put meaning into them and build dialogue with people. I have been lucky to publish in the last three years in different magazines such as: Photovogue, Marika, Hi-life, Edith, Makeda, Selin, Makesense, Hazze. Also in 2022 with my work The Broken Flower I took part in group Exhibition in London at the A Space Arts Gallery, my work was subsequently bought into a private collection.

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