3 artists on the places that give them creative inspiration

The LA-based visual and performance artist is celebrated for the storytelling power of her vibrant and evocative works. She draws on inspirations from her multicultural identity with a focus on the everyday – both the mundane and the dramatic, the joys and the hardships – of post-colonial life in Mozambique, where she was born.

“The place that I prefer to work could go many ways. Sometimes I love being surrounded by white walls in my studio, with ritual and routine. And then, other times, I most admire travel and painting out of hotels or rental houses and painting what I see right in front of me – [I appreciate] the immediacy of that.

“My best ideas often come to me when I adhere to sensitivity, pay attention to details and also reflect [one] narrative and apply through my channels. For example, I might look at a classic mother-and-child painting ­– a classical theme we have seen and known through portraiture – and then apply [using] my own specific lens with a gaze I have agency over.

“Places that I draw inspiration from are literature, cinema, history, art… Everything humans have come to beautifully weave into our culture, the good and the bad. The duality. I find interest in having it somehow make its way through my work. I feel most artists have this; it’s really nothing unique but sort of an innate calling.

“When I am stuck for creative inspiration, it helps me to remain curious and attentive. To always seek, ruminate, find beauty in the nuance.

“Somewhere I’ve never been to but would love to go is Oman – and then Mali and Socotra island.

“The most beautiful place I’ve ever been is to the Island of Mozambique, a Unesco coral reef off the northern coast of mainland Mozambique.

“To truly capture a place through art, you have to lose and then find yourself in painting and place, and then do it all over again through the process of making that painting.”

“Somewhere that I’ve never been but would love to go is Mexico. I would like to see the celebrations on the Day of the Dead. My work is also about death and the soul, and existence in the absence. I am interested in this culture and their traditions, and how they celebrate it.

“The most beautiful place I’ve ever been to is Israel, Jerusalem. The Old City is so special. There is a completely different energy there. So many people come to this place ­– I don’t belong to any religion, but I can feel people praying. It is very intense. I’ve never had this kind of feeling in any other country. It is very special.

“To truly capture a place through art, you have to feel the trace of human history, of human existence, memory. I have to feel everything, then I combine it with my art. For instance, in 2017, I exhibited in Le Havre in France, at Saint-Joseph’s Church. It is a very big church, more than 100 meters high. I created a vortex of energy, Accumulation of Power, for the exhibition. Many circles of energy, above the altar, directly above the pastor speaking. I wanted to connect with the people. The red whirlpool construction embodies an accumulation of spiritual power. A church is a place for people to pray and confess. It is a place also for spiritual energy, even for people who are not religious.”

“When I am stuck for creative inspiration, it helps me to stroll around with my camera or making sketches, but also reading, watching the work of the classical masters and contemporary painters and photographers.

“Somewhere that I’ve never been but would love to go is Japan. During the Edo era, Japan exercised a strict isolationist policy, closing its doors to all relationships with the outside world. Nowadays, Western culture has influenced aspects of Japanese art. Today, Japan stands as one of the leading and most prominent cultures around the world.

“The most beautiful place I’ve ever been to… is very difficult to say. All places are beautiful in some way or another. My paintings precisely try to question the traditional notion of beauty.

“To truly capture a place through art, you have to first walk around, make sketches, see how light changes the atmosphere in different weather conditions and different hours, and finally something almost banal might catch your attention and become the center of the composition.”