Artwork and story from Mercedesz Farkas

Inspired all day long

When I do something, I am really passionate about it. I like to create and learn new things but don’t have a creative career at the moment. I work in a hospital in an intensive care unit as a nursing assistant and am married with five children, two of whom have already moved out. Our family lives in an average sized Swedish town but we are originally from Hungary. My biggest interest is people: I am fascinated by the human body, the expressive faces and gestures, and understanding the interplay between body and soul. I like to have deep and long discussions with others.

As a teenager, I wanted to go to an art school but was never enrolled. I felt disappointed and untalented, but kept my interest of arts, drawing and painting throughout my high school years. I wanted to create an nothing could stop me; when I ran out of white gouache while recreating Kees van Dongen`s “Woman in black hat”, I used toothpaste.

After we married I had to put those hobbies aside. Just a few years ago, after we have realized that two of our children have high functional autism and severe anxiety disorder, I started drawing and painting again. I was worrying about our children so much that I needed to find some time for myself and this became art for me. When everything seemed to fall apart around me I just wanted to create some beauty, harmony and wholeness. Today, art means something even more to me. It is like being in love. My greatest wish would be to have an artistic career, to inspire and to be inspired all day long.

My biggest challenge in art is to be able to create from imagination. Like many other people, I have also learned that I should draw what I see and most of the time I am able to copy what I see (more or less!) but it has its limits. What I am not so good at, though, is creating on my own. Although the copying method helped me focus on things like drawing negative spaces or objects, I want to be free in my own creativity.

Drawing Academy tutors say “draw what you know”, and right now I don’t feel like I know enough – that is why I am here.

I have read quite a bit of feedback from Web Art Academy students during the past year and I feel that this course would be perfect for me. I believe that with enough hard work and practice I can harness my inner creativity, and with the right guidance and feedback along the way I can grow.

Why should you vote for me? Well I’m not great at “selling myself”, but let me see… I like to find beauty everywhere. I think that we need people who are able to see beauty in the world today and can lift others with their works. I want to be such a person.