Anne Laure: I've always done things differently and always wanted to be an artist.
I have always had an overwhelming sense of needing to have a connection to nature. As a result, a lot of my work is botanical-based, plant-related and expansive lands, writes Anne-Laure. I've always done things differently, always moved around a lot and always wanted to be an artist.
Words: Anne-Laure
On a cold December day in 2020, clutching my three-week-old baby, Mathis, I looked at the pile's boxes on the floor of my new home in Bristol. I'd decided to move from south London to be closer to family and access more green space.
The end of my maternity leave wasn't even looming, and I was already dreading the life I could see up ahead: return to work, send Mathis to childcare, rush around all week and try and be present with him on the weekends whilst still doing the cleaning, shopping, life-admin - all before Monday came about again.
Mathis is now almost two, and after the whirlwind of moving cities mid-pandemic, PND, no sleep for over a year, and our nursery closing at short notice, I am returning to my career, my art and a realisation of how much I missed it.
I have always wanted to be an artist. I've been creative for as long as I can remember. The compromise when I was going to uni was that I did architecture. But I always felt like a total imposter. I always did things slightly differently from everyone else and never felt like it was me or my profession.
It took me until 2015 to permit myself to start exploring.
My first big trip was a three-week painting trip in Jordan, which opened my mind to how much I love painting. I then travelled across the Middle East in a 1970s Landrover with a friend from school. That was the turning point for quitting my full-time interior architecture job.
Since then, I have been doing freelance interior spatial design work to support and give space to my art practice.
The core theme throughout my artwork is landscapes and our connection to nature. My work is botanical-based, plant-related and expansive lands, whether in Greenland looking at the rock formations, desert landscapes, or mountain regions in Mexico.
But the tide (and my world) has changed.
Of course, as every mother knows, having a baby (especially during a pandemic) changed me unimaginably.
I am now unable to go off and travel to Greenland or Mexico at the drop of a hat. But now I'm here with a new sense of purpose. I am out of the zombie trenches of early motherhood. I adore motherhood and have a clever toddler that loves to dance to sea-shanties and comes to Womad with me.
"I look at what is important to me now, and it's how do we rewild ourselves, how do we get that connection to nature which is so important for our mental health? How do I break away from this conventional way of living and reconnect with what makes me feel alive?".
I have returned to freelance work and my art. I plan to combine my art practice and interior spatial design with garden design. That's what I'm excited about, how to bring all of these things together.
"A few years ago, with a friend, we did a coaching exercise with tarot cards, and the card that landed for me was 'shaping environments'. And I think that encompasses everything that I do. It's about shaping spaces visually and aesthetically and enhancing spaces through my art. I want people to feel excited about their connection to nature and creativity.
I feel like I'm standing on the edge of a precipice, and it feels exhilarating. I'm usually optimistic – unless my anxiety has a full choke hold on me – so I hope to soar.
There is an urgency for us to reconnect with nature. We need to address the climate crisis. By nurturing nature, we heal ourselves.