Confidence and Emma

Artist Emma Constant comes to Artbox for three sessions a week and she is the embodiment of confidence, self awareness and a strong artistic identity. When she joined us, she was already rather confident in her artmaking, and as time has passed, she has become more confident experimenting within her practice, and joining Artbox trips and exhibitions. 

Emma’s artmaking revolves around people and places, Emma references places she’s travelled to and often mixes her memories with inspiration from art books. Her favourites are those that depict strong historical women, renaissance art, and idyllic scenes. When asked about her artwork, Emma happily shares a narrative explanation of her work. Historical dates and places, memories, kings and queens and sometimes tragedies. Her paintings match the accompanying narratives in richness, colour and grandeur. 

Sharing her artwork with her family and peers, and having the opportunity to sell work online and participate in exhibitions has contributed to Emma’s strong sense of identity as an Artist. More importantly, Emma’s highly individual approach to artmaking is a reminder that intuition and confidence can be more valuable than accepted ways of art making. 

At Artbox, respecting artists’ voices and supporting their independence and individuality comes first. Listening, noticing, and observing artists’ ways of creating, ways of communicating, and ways of exploring is our main way of working. When artists like Emma are given the space and structure to take their creativity further, and when their artistic voices are encouraged instead of changed to fit a mold, the positive effects are tenfold. Assertiveness in decision-making grows, identity is strengthened along with self esteem, independence continues developing and art itself flourishes too.