sPLITTING SEEDS
AN EXPLORATION OF ART MAKING AND PARALYSIS
A body of work delving into narratives surrounding disability, the body, and identity. It takes shape through my artistic creations from the beginning of my journey learning to draw again without the use of my hands, following a life-altering incident in November 2020 when I was shot and left paralyzed.
Fusing emotive mark making, medical scans, photography and cartograph. Playing with scale to underscore the significance of mobility aids, and the empowering aspects of disability as a source of creativity.
This collection exposes the monochrome theater of my life-saving surgery layered with the lush foliage of exotic plants. Themes of growth and resilience abound, displaying beauty flourishing through the unexpected and the painful splitting, splintering and breaking that growth often entails.
In addition to drawings and paintings, I utilize eye gaze and voice dictation, to create digital works. A distinctive process, involving a multitude of creative adaptive devices and the use of light for layering, bridges the realms of emotion and physicality in adaptation to a life transformed by paralysis.
This autobiographical body of work has deeply rooted social and political implications, as it stimulates reflections on independence, bodily autonomy, fragility and growth through world shaking events.
New Landing, 2023 Various black paint , wheels , canvas
Metal Head 1, 2023 acrylic, canvas, digital artwork , light
Metal Head 2, 2023 acrylic, canvas, digital artwork , light
One, 2023 acrylic, paper, linen, digital artwork , light
Progress, 2021 - Present acrylic , watercolour, ink, pen on paper
Untitled fabric 1,2
Splitting Seeds - Life as Natalie 2.0 Short film by Matt Joy