Hi I’m Ellis Lewis-Dragstra, full time freelance illustration artist. The main commission work I get is creating album artworks for various musicians. Despite not always being aware of it, In my work I am interested in exploring the relations between art forms. Especially music, having synaesthesia music has always also felt like a visual artform to me, and possible a bigger influence on my work then actual visual artforms. I am entirety self-taught and feel this has led me to pick up a lot of “bad” drawing habits which have developed into my own style. 
In my own personal work, I try and embrace the freedom of not having any brief and create something over a few weeks/months that means a lot to me. Examples of past projects have been influenced by themes of Family, Nature, Dreams and the process of creating itself. No matter the theme I like to find connections between things that people don’t usually consider but can relate to. Being an artist that works by hand with mediums like watercolour/paint but also digital illustration on photoshop, I notice there is sometimes a hierarchy of paintings being put above digital art. I try and fight this notion of “high” and “low” art by mixing both together in my work. Therefore my influences can come from everything from the artist Bosch to the old Looney Tunes cartoons and everything in between. With this range of influences, I have always felt creating art was a balancing act between my inner child (the artist) and my adult side (the editor), who cuts out what’s unnecessary giving an artwork more direction and intention. This process can be a visual conversation or argument. What I love about art, that I try and embrace in my own work is that it has as many meanings as there are people looking at it. Please feel free to look around my studio where my creative process will be updated stage by stage resulting in a new piece of work. Thank you! 

Hi, my name is violet/a marchenkova, and welcome to my studio. I am an artist filmmaker, writer, arts worker and community organiser with Devil’s Dyke Network. For the longest time, I’ve been a student of spaces and environments, learning how to create moments of communality, connection and the life-affirming energies of the erotic. It’s almost like I needed to create those spaces that strive for acceptance and a radical kind of inclusivity to affirm the place and possibility of my personal creative work.

Sometimes I think that this queered intimacy is the only medium I’m truly interested in. Otherwise, I’m obsessed with many other things: diaristic practices, dance music, embodied dance practices, mental health, Disability Justice, queer TV content, bisexual culture, why my zoom sangha makes me feel so good, rethinking autism, and more.

I’m going to use this residency as a moment to finally sit down and review various film footage and written pieces I’ve collected over the years, to see if a new film emerges. I’m going to use this time to play and connect with people as much as possible, maybe record some conversations, see people, be seen.

You can watch the last diary film I made in 2019 here. It is called jet lag. These diary films are me but also not me. Parts of me that exist or existed, questions and insecurities I purged (or maybe, reintegrated).

Please feel free to leave me comments on the posts, I’m looking forward to chatting with you. I hope we can connect, even briefly, over these very silly and very serious things.

Lots of love,

v

My name is Nadine Mckenzie and I am a dancer/ performing artist living with a disability from Cape Town South Africa. I have been working in the Inclusive dance field for the past 14 years. For the past 7 years I have been working with inclusive dance company Unmute Dance Theatre which I co-founded with 3 colleagues. What interests me is telling stories, lived experiences, finding creative ways to communicate these stories and bring awareness and open dialogue around various topics. Be it my own experiences /stories or that of people and my environment around me.

During this residency I would like to explore the relationship I have with my wheelchair, why?

For the past 29 years i have been using a wheelchair after being involved in a car accident. For many years I have gone through several phases of what my chair means to the world around me and how it is perceived, and the influence this has had on me as an individual. What my relationship to my wheelchair is and has meant over the years. How this has changed / shifted as I grew older and in particular in the different spaces and environment I’ve found myself in.

I have learnt through my environment and society that my chair is not seen as something positive, beautiful, empowering on the contrary quite the opposite. Although it has carried me for 29 years, given me mobility and freedom.

What I wish to explore? Beauty of my chair, the trust it has taught me. Strength, reliance. It is more than just a chair, it is part of me. Shift the misconception and negative connotation that is attached to it.

Please feel free to check in from time to time as I will be sharing my journey of this exploration with you through images, text and videos.

Hope you enjoy my sharing and I look forward to any questions and/ or exchange..

Nadine

Hello, I am …kruse, welcome to my studio. 

Let me introduce myself; I am a neurodivergent (non-typically brained) being. I consider myself to be a multitude rather than a singular entity. The three dots before my name stand in for the beings who help form ‘me,’ but whom I do not know – the microbes, fungi and yeasts, all living beings, who make up my physical self. When you read my name the three dots invite you to take a small inward pause, a minute moment of silence. It is my gift to you in this busy, noisy world.

I will use this Vital Capacities residency to explore my interest in paths and walking. I will be using video, photography, drawing and writing to try and understand a bit more about my love for tracks and trails. 

Three years ago, I was on a day walk through the Warwickshire countryside when I had a sudden vision of a female being, a cyborg, walking the same path but in the far future. That vision has never left me and has become a huge, multidisciplinary project, called The AuTCRONE Chronicle.

The AuTCRONE walks. She walks endlessly, for hundreds of years. What is it about walking, and particularly walking a given track or path, that fascinates me so? That is the research question I will be exploring here. 

Have you ever played the game Myst? In that game you ‘walk’ along twisting paths, in beautiful, deserted landscapes to strange buildings where you solve puzzles. To me, walking along in that game is the best bit! The landscapes and visuals in Myst are really beautiful and slightly otherworldly. I hope to create some Myst inspired visuals during this residency, maybe even play with a bit of animation.

I hope you enjoy hanging out in my studio here. Do you have any other walking games you think I should check out? Do you love to walk yourself? Is there some special path in the UK I should try and walk during my residency? I’d love to hear from you so please do leave comments, or get in touch with me via social media.

I will say goodbye with a blessing; Not all those who wander are lost, but if you are, may you be on a beautiful path and find a warm welcome at day’s end.          …kruse

Greetings everyone!

My name is Siphenathi Mayekiso, welcome to my studio. I am a trained physical theatre performer/actor and an integrated dancer/choreographer. 

I regard myself as a storyteller and poetic mover. I draw my creative inspiration from different aspects of life, abstract images, philosophy, ideologies and history at large. I am fascinated by objects in space in relation to the body and the inclusivity of what is not part of the body to move as one while telling a story. As an artist I am at a place where I use my body as a catalyst in negotiating dialogues around inclusivity and body politics which circles the notion of being differently-able.

Being part of Vital Capacities residency is an extremely good opportunity for me to expand my knowledge in creating a virtual performance that seeks to be inclusive and accessible. There are a number of concepts/research that I wish to interrogate during the residency while weaving together the narrative using body in relation to objects. For instance, what does the phrase “being-in-the-closet” mean?

Please feel welcomed to look around my studio and the work I will be posting. Spoiler alert: It will be a collage of different images, audios and videos. 

Please leave a comment or questions for me in the comments section (below) for us to engage. 

I hope that you’ll enjoy your visit.

Siphenathi Mayrkiso