Skip to main content

Artist Statement — Alison Friday (b.1973)

(My art revisited)

Intro

I’ve spent years trying to define myself through artist statements — always searching for the right words, the right angle, the right explanation of who I am and why I make what I make. I don’t bother with that anymore. I am my own muse. My work comes from lived experience, instinct, memory, and the objects that have followed me through my life.

Still, I thought I’d share the statements I’ve found along the way — the fragments, the attempts, the versions of me that tried to pin myself down. They’re part of the story too.

Artist Statement — Alison Friday (b.1973)

Last modified: 19/11/24 this version.

My artistic intention is to create harmony through colour, structure, and composition. I have a natural penchant for drama in the objects I choose — a frisson between old toys and childhood trauma, damaged and broken things that still carry their own beauty. I’m drawn to the juxtaposition of childhood memories with adult comfort and discomfort, pushing and pressing until emotion rises to the surface.

I am a self‑taught artist with a passion for creative making and the art of the stitch. My practice spans collage, mixed media, and textile work. I’ve facilitated art workshops, contributed crochet pieces to a published book, and collaborated with various art groups. Modern computer skills remain a challenge, often to the detriment of my work, but my hands and materials have always been my strongest tools.

I’m inspired by female modern masters and by my interior surroundings — the beauty found in everyday vintage objects. My still‑life scenes often feature artefacts, keepsakes, and evidence of the past. My work is layered: drawn, painted, stitched, and assembled, always with floral elements threading through.

My house is my gallery and my constant source of inspiration. The foreground toys in my compositions come from my childhood — some real, some imagined — forming a bridge between memory and the present moment.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear Molly, my strong, funny, tenacious, independent, courageous daughter.

  Dear Molly, my strong, funny, tenacious, independent, courageous daughter. So if I got paid for every time someone told me my daughter looks fabulous, I’d be a millionaire. A millionaire for every doctor who ignored you, for every professional who let you slip through the cracks, for every moment when the full information, the full picture, the full respect wasn’t given. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Today is for you, Molly. And for the future generations of our family — because this is genetic, because this is inherited, because someone needs to notice and someone needs to ask the right questions. I have become, by necessity, a hormonal expert. A mother who had to learn what the system refused to teach. And through it all, your husband — your rock — has moved mountains beside you, carrying what others refused to see, loving you through every unseen storm. I wish PMDD looked like your arm falling off. Because if people could see it, they’d care. Docto...
Post a Comment
Read more

Going Shopping in the Menopausal Way

  Going Shopping in the Menopausal Way A menopausal purchase is planetary. The sun must shine. The temperature must be just right. You must be neither dipping nor surging — just perfectly balanced in the hormonal moment. Because unless you buy exactly when the stars align, it will get returned. You’ll love it on the day. But if the scales tip even slightly — by the next morning, it’s on the fence. If you’re lucky, you’ll return it. If not, it’ll sit in your wardrobe for 28 days until the return window closes. Then it’s either sold on Vinted for a quarter of the price or left to haunt you. There’s a lot resting on a menopausal buy. It’s not just a purchase — it’s a mood, a moment, a miracle. I never realised this until I saw how small my wardrobe was. Not because the shops weren’t there — but because I wasn’t there when I got there. You leave the house feeling great. You arrive at the shops and suddenly… not so great. So the purchase is less than mediocre. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Baby Whale and the Circle of Sharks

  🌊 The Baby Whale and the Circle of Sharks A children’s story inspired by Maverick George’s real beginning Intro for Molly and Ryan When Baby Whale was born, the ocean shook. The Sea Health Service — the SHS — whispered to his parents that he had the rarest lung trouble they had seen in sixty tides . His mum, the gentle whale Molly, had just brought him into the world. His dad, the brave whale Ryan, stayed outside the coral surgery cave for hours, swimming back and forth, bringing news, bringing hope, bringing love. Baby Whale needed help right away. Not because he was weak — but because he was special , and his tiny blowhole needed extra care to learn how to breathe. That was only the beginning. 🌊 Chapter One: The Circle of Sharks From the moment Baby Whale opened his eyes, the sharks were already circling. Not the big, fierce sharks — not the ones who bite in one terrible snap. These were the small‑bite sharks . The ones who take tiny nibbles, again and again, never enough to ...
2 comments
Read more