Arielle – Autoportrait

I’m an artist, living in Montreal. My work is inspired by dreams and subconscious. I think dreams contain clues of who we truly are, we can use them to know ourselves better and when we do so, magic happens: we learn to overcome our fears, we are becoming honest with ourselves, the more we know about the self the more our interactions with others are harmonious. I create to express myself and help others be in touch with their higher self and find ways to overcome their fears and negative behaviours so that we live in a more positively connected world.

What is your relationship with your own mind?
My relationship with my mind is like the one a surfer has with the sea. I’m surfing the waves of my reflexions, ideas and thoughts trying to see the shapes, the best ways to approach them and let myself slide on them leaving the useless ones behind and being grateful for the ones that are taking me further. I do a lot of meditation trying to visualize the obstacles I have to overcome, modelling my future, opening the doors of my mind, accessing information about Life itself, the Universe. I’m trying to use my mind to connect with inspirational souls, calling them to me so that we can share positive energy.

How does your work relate to the theme the mind?
My work relates to the theme of the Mind because everything I do comes from visions, dreams and travels through the subconscious, they are different instances contained in my mind, interacting with each other nourishing each other and then they’re filtered by the heart.

What has creativity / art taught you about your own mind?
Creativity has taught me to be patient with my desires, it has taught me a way of living where my mind can transcend thoughts, materialize them into ”real life”. It has helped me train my mind so it won’t get lost and overwhelmed by social pressure, false scenarios created by anxiety and stress. Creativity helped me to stop being the ghost of myself and really embrace my mind at last.

Please describe your submitted piece, Autoportrait.
Autoportrait is really important to me, it took me six weeks to create. I saw the whole process of my personal quest to reach a higher level of mindfulness. At the beginning I was painting clouds, sea, things I’m comfortable with. Then I added a cosmic layer to it, I was happy it started to look like what I pictured in my mind. I added the two nautilus (right and left corner) I had to restart a lot of times to create the effect I was looking for. Nautilus are symbols of the golden number and perfection of nature. My eyes are in love with the shape of it. The more I painted the more I felt disconnected with my creation which is not good. I started to feel I wouldn’t be able to finish it. Then I took some time to think, go deep into my mind and understand what was going on. I finally saw my fears: I was afraid to let myself go completely.

I had to take my painting a step further, add some weirdness to it, add life, add my guts to it. So I put some really loud music on, to immerse myself in a sound cocoon, then everything became clear. I let myself go and added the floating body shape, the colours flourishing in the center, representing my inner self finally connected to my mind and heart. I thought I was done but a friend saw it and I knew he was thinking that something was missing. So I became filled with a creative rage and I let go once more, I added golden lines, surrounding some shapes and clouds. To me it represented the invisible substance that connects us all, what we’re all made of and makes us One.

It was a long travel into my mind.

Find Arielle here: @arielle.cote