MAYA IRVING
What is your work about and what medium do you use?
I work with movement, intuition and colour to convey my experience of both my inner and outer landscapes. At the moment I am predominantly exploring themes of sexuality and self-compassion. I build up my artworks with layers of free-movement, mess-making and minimal expectation, using acrylic paints, oil paints, charcoal and various parts of my body as a tool.
How did your project come to be?
I first had the urge to paint on a trip through the Kimberley in 2013. I was so captivated by the colours and patterns and textures in the soil and plants. At the time I was studying creative writing but it felt like I could find no words to capture what it felt to be in that landscape so I started painting! It is a profound place that I really hope I can spend more time in one day soon.
How has your practice changed over time?
My practice is ever-evolving and changing. I find it hard to stick with one medium and style for too long.
I guess what has always interested me is motion and colour. There is a similar way in which my paintings hold quite circular, bodily forms and earthy colours. I started by painting little gouache on paper caricatures of animals and depictions of the desert landscape. As my practise evolved, these landscapes became quite loose and abstract.
The biggest shift for me was when I moved from paper to canvas, it was a colourful, messy explosion! From this point on my creative process became a space in which to work through different emotions. I began to work around themes of sexuality and identity. I have followed down this path for the past year.
In this current stage of painting I have discarded trying to create anything recognisable and am working from a completely embodied state, devoid of a critical mind.
Emotional Connection
I find painting to be an extremely personal and emotional experience. Without it I honestly don’t know how I could’ve survived this past year. Each work goes through so many layers of anguish and ecstasy. I like to channel a certain emotion with different paintings, such as anger, grief or lust.
For the past year I have been observing my relationship to sex and pleasure, how this has evolved over time and what influences have shaped it. When I was younger there was a great deal of unconscious rigidity and fear in my sexuality, tied in with external influences and societal expectations. I have been using painting as a means in which to explore the various parts of my sexual self; my kinks and desires and finding the erotic in the everyday life.
I find my creative state to be closely related to how I feel when in a state of arousal. Complete concentration, vulnerability and curiosity.
I like to think of my artworks as if they were a warm embrace, a shoulder to cry on or a cheeky friend at the park. I hope that through sharing my honest, vulnerable self, it can connect with others in a way that is safe, warm and inviting.
Where can we see more of your work?
If all goes to plan I have an exhibition with another artist Mollie Wilson at Marfa Gallery in the first week of November, fingers crossed!
Otherwise you can find my work and news on any upcoming exhibitions via my instagram or website.
What is next for you?
I have a few exhibitions to work towards, hopefully in November and early next year! Around that I am excited to collaborate as much as possible.
Oil on canvas, 2021
‘We are curvy, we are bendy, we are heavy, we are light.’…
We are loud, we are quiet, we are smart, we are bright. We are proud, we are strong, we are sexy, we are gross. We have bodies, we have bits, we have sex, we have wits. We feel pleasure and we feel no shame!’
One of many of Maya’s many artworks that is available on her website.