Polish-born, London-based painter Noemi Conan discusses her lifelong impulse to gather inspirational fragments of data, and how she curates these visual mementos within her sketchbook as a way to process her busy mind. Noemi’s sketchbook serves as a creative receptacle for her collection of found materials and snippets of inspiration compiled from films, exhibitions and long journeys. Through this process of visual journaling, Noemi is able to explore the themes of migration, womanhood and identity that are central to her work.     Inside the Sketchbook of Noemi Conan I’m Noemi Conan, a Polish painter based in London for the time being. In my work, I explore the ways visual storytelling can aid me in talking about my conflicted experience of migration, self-image, and womanhood. I paint women, cats and conifers, smoking after dark, and extended hangouts at roadsides.     I arrived at what I would call a sketchbook by combining my lifelong obsession with collecting visual data – labels, dried plants, napkins, stickers, a particularly tasty typeface or logo, a ridiculous headline in the daily newspaper – with the written scaffolding I was encouraged to build by tutors at art school. My brain is a messy, overstuffed attic …

The post Inside the Sketchbook of Noemi Conan appeared first on  Jackson’s Art Blog.

Continue reading