CREATIVE OF THE MONTH / JUNE 2021

NATASHA RAND

Each month, Yeovil Creatives art group present to you one of their members. A close-up of their actual artworks, projects, and preoccupations.

June 2021, Natasha Rand, Artist & Creative Tutor is our creative of the month.

” I made the unusual decision to study a combined degree, in visual arts and English literature. I would play with the words I had read and incorporate meanings, and sometime the text, into my work and art into my written narrative. My travels, my everyday life was always about the objects you find, the landscapes you explore and of course the people you meet.

Visual art to me has always been about a narrative. It is the story telling from artist that engages the viewer. For me, it is the viewer’s response, possibly through their own creativity, is when the magical happens. As a creative tutor, teacher of 20 years and now an engagement producer I explore the process and the creative conversations as important as the outcomes that are produced. This connection to creativity has the power to draw people together.

The power of audio recording, like in the project “Together We Are Stronger” is, to me, a perfect example about the power of story can help co-create empowering art. Sure, we talk to one other, everyday conversation take place, but do we find the time to really listen? Rarely do we consider our response before firing back our answers.

By listening and responding to a recorded story, a consideration to what we are listening too is applied. We choose to become connected; we listen with more intensity and take time to respond. Add on another layer of “making and creating” an artistic response, takes time, thought, and develops a meaningful art, which in turn is then viewed, read, and responded too by others. In truth the time taken to listen and respond through the art impacts the original storyteller, emphasizing to them that what they have said has been heard. The conversation happens without even the need to meet. Preserved in time for others to hear and see. Connected, ignoring the constraints of distance, space, and time.

Since recording the podcasts and visually responding I have started to explore the beauty of the soundscapes on the digital screen as the words play in audio. The patterns formed by the words of spoken narrative to me have a beauty, a unique pattern that I intend to play with and further develop my own narrative art.”