I’m no expert, but I know what I like, and in particular what speaks or emotes to me.
Here I’m highlighting those artists who have achieved this for me, and I hope will for you.
The other opportunity I value in knowing or working with contemporary artists is the ability to chat with them about their motivations, what inspires them, their techniques and process.
Thank you to each of you here, you’ve enriched my life through your art and as people, and more ought to be able to experience the same.
Aliya Bodnar, Ukraine & UK
Watercolours
“My work explores the fragile rhythm of modernity against the backdrop of enduring architectural presence. I am drawn to places that hold stories – facades shaped by time, quiet corners, shifting light. Watercolor allows me to trace the emotional memory embedded in these spaces. After illness, loss, and displacement, I’ve learned to slow down and see again. I paint to preserve what might otherwise be overlooked. I paint to remember.”
Instagram: aliyabodnar.art
Web: aliyabodnar.com
Pythie the Fool, Belgium
Upcycling
“Pythie the Fool” is the name of a decoration store located in Cheravoie in Liège and which has the particularity of offering vases made from recycled jeans.
Its creator, Delphine Fontaine, has upcycling in her. It’s a life philosophy for this woman who buys almost nothing new. Today, she’s made it her profession through her boutique “Pythie the Fool.” Delphine sells, for example, her denim vases and her personalized cocottes. But Delphine also organizes artist exhibitions almost every week within her walls. But how did this idea come about?
“I was in a second-hand store with my daughter. There was everything, vases, clothes, second-hand goods. I bought a Delft vase and also some jeans, and when I found myself at the checkout, the vase in one hand and the jeans in the other, I said to myself, ‘why not the jeans on the vase!'”
[Source]
Instagram: pythiethefool
Web: pythiethefool
Nicole De Backer, Belgium
Watercolour & Upcycling
I paint with watercolors on handmade paper. The paintings are very colorful, uniquely finished with bark and natural elements, and framed.
Nicole De Backer has been painting on handmade paper for several years now. This is ecological paper, made from
leaves and fallen twigs. So no trees are cut down for this. She attaches scraps of
paper, stamps, and jute to it. Then she applies pure, bright watercolor colors, followed by a composition with dried wood chips from nature. The works are framed.
This is an organic process from walking in the woods to the creation, and then viewing of her work. It’s all very much led by fate.
She also makes bookmarks in the same way, naturally without wood chips. Her collection is created spontaneously and
impulsively and is called ‘Color Impressions‘.
Instagram: koloraj_impresoj
Eliot De Roy [Ellie], Belgium
Tattoo & Multimedia
Ellie is a well respected and feted tattooist and multimedia artist. He attended arts school, concentrating on tattoo art for the decade since then, but he is also known for his art on other media than skin alone. His original, unique style is influenced by many other artists and cultural aspects, including past and current graphic and comic art.
Ellie has had a life long fascination with Tolkien’s universe as it does align with his search for the good in all. The pursuit of light over dark. The inherent beauty and meaning of life.
Based in Belgium, Ellie is one of four tattoo artists at The Lost Oasis in Leuven. Ever adventurous, I have been privileged to work with Ellie, not just on tattoos, but also in combining his art with my writing on the beginnings of the Thrun and Liberation story series.
Instagram: