For a while now, I’ve been thinking about the word ‘resilience’. In my life I’ve been going through a time of unravelling that has caused me to dig deep into a place of strength. It’s a space inside me that I never thought I would visit again.

I’ve been working through these experiences and, as I have, one word keeps coming up and being repeated to me as to how I’m dealing with these changes in my journey through life, that word is ‘resilience’.

I’ve been reflecting on the symbolism of the word and it’s meaning within my art form. I’ve been letting my creative mind express my feelings about the word resilience and I’ve been thinking about the connection of our individual human experience to that of nature.

We share that resilient connection with nature because we are part of nature. We have become so disconnected, but we share the strength to pushback against adversity, we continue through hardship to find our inner strength when we thought it was all lost. Like a small vine that grows over a wall or a flower that pushes through the crack in concrete.

‘Copper Vines’ is the first piece I have completed in what I hope will be a new collection reflecting on these thoughts. I wanted to take some time with my more abstract practice to-express how nature pushes back. How nature will push through the cracks of our world. How full of resilience nature is and in turn how resilient we are. We need to find a way of working together with nature, even in small moments, to have hope. We need to be resilient together. It’s what is in us and all around us, it’s a universal connection.

“Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive”.