Artist Statement
From an early age I day dreamed - sometimes I forgot where I was or what I was doing as I stared at the fascinating world around me, doodling patterns, words and marks. My family accused me of being clumsy, distracted, in another world. I fought hard to be “normal” and adapt to the world around me, though in my heart the only thing that made sense to me was making art. In an attempt to follow my heart, I ran away to America when textile college in England did not work out for me. I graduated with a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and later in life, an MA in Arts and Consciousness from JFK University in Orinda, CA. I simultaneously followed a career in college support services for 34 years to help support our family, while keeping my desire to make things constant.
I am now back in the UK, living in Wales and developing my practice.
I love how light makes everything magical and am intrigued by patterns and structure and how nature has its unique, exquisite way of putting forms together, whether it is the leaves on a branch or the way our limbs are perfectly contoured to fit. I abstract what I see into how it makes me feel through colours, shapes, light and form. I don’t usually start with a visual though nature is my muse. I listen to my inner voice, guided by energies, psyche and ancestral memories. I believe in past lives and that we know deeply more than we realize and I follow my intuition. I am intrigued by the journeys of my ancestors as they travelled across bodies of water, sometimes by choice but also by force, searching for a place to call home. The water holds a multitude of secrets, energies, love and transformation and is healing me through this stage of my life and discovery.
Yasmin Lambie-Simpson, 2022