ANDREA SULLIVAN

Wabi Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic centred around an appreciation and admiration for all things that are imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a simple beauty that grows from the realization that nothing lasts forever and to admire the beauty of things in all stages of their existence.

Japanese aesthetics and my love of the natural environment are constant sources of inspiration. Appreciating the inherent cyclicality and transience of nature and life inspires me to create work that explores nature’s vulnerability, its beauty, its lightness, its quietness, its energy, its everchanging textures, its fragility for example.

My choice of medium and materials are important aspects of the work. Working with delicate handmade papers and watercolour helps to capture some of these feelings of vulnerability, lightness, quietness, fragility etc. Through the painting process the paper moves and shifts, changing its shape and appearance. At times the paper completely falls apart at the touch of the brush or when the paint enters the paper. The process is inherently uncontrollable and organic.

Repetition and/or layering are also important aspects of the work. Repetition brings a sense of quietness and allows for contemplation through which the work itself comes into ‘being’ over time. Layering feels like an honouring of time passed; it’s history in its evolution.