Artist Feature: Buckley
Buckley is a visual philosopher. Her works manifest in varied forms, including: drawings, paintings, sculpture, performance, poetry, and experiential events. Through each medium, she reveals the mythology of an enlightened society. A synthesis of modern voicing and ancient forms, Buckley’s works traverse the symbolic and timeless experiences of self, prompting conscious contemplation of inner life. Buckley’s stream of consciousness process creates a sense of instant action which can be felt immediately in her glyph-like imagery; its lines exact and seemingly completed in one stroke. Her interplay of form and space are as honest and direct as instinct. Rather than dictating the complexities of reality, Buckley’s inclination towards simplicity invites the viewer to deploy their own facilities of reason, intuition and reflection.
Illustrations by BUCKLEY
Q: Can you share something you've learned from creating this body of work that would resonate with our community?
B: My work speaks to the feminine awakening that is currently occurring on a collective scale. It illustrates, both within and beyond gender, the aspects of the feminine which need to be reintegrated most if we wish to heal humanity as a whole. The suppression of the feminine in each of us results in a paralysis of our higher facilities of collaboration, mutual care, fluid creativity, emotional intelligence and endless other invaluable qualities. I see the collective remembering itself through the active empowerment of the feminine uprising, and your community and platform is honoring and amplifying that to such a powerful degree. I truly appreciate what you're putting forward in the world.
Q: Tell us about your work process! Do you plan your images ahead or are you more improvisational?
B: My process is different for each medium. For drawing, I always improvise, that's a free practice for me to find the foundations of my voice. Paintings on canvas start with a drawing on the canvas, and occasionally with some sketches in a notebook if I'm trying to render a specific topic, then I map out the palette, paint, and do a bit of final tuning until it's complete. Murals begin with a digital sketch and go through an approval process, then I scale them up by using an organic grid system to transfer them onto the wall.
Sculpture by BUCKLEY
Q: What types of expectations for artists are most challenging to you today?
B: The most challenging aspect of being a professional contemporary artist, in my opinion, is running every aspect of a business by yourself for a long long time until eventually a team can be assembled around you. It is wild how many roles you must not only play, but excel at, in order to keep up the entrepreneurial practice of making art for a living. You have to master so many more skills beyond creative technique, like accounting, navigating legal matters, high quality documentation, SEO/marketing/social media, partnerships, pitching, sales, admin, negotiations, general socializing and being present in the creative community, studio management, training assistants, etc etc etc all on TOP of really staying tuned to your soul and being devoted to your studio practice. It's a wild balancing act! But I find it all to be extremely exciting and I try to find the creativity in every aspect of running my art business.
Q: What does being a feminist mean to you?
B: Being a feminist, to me, means seeing and honoring the feminine in every single person you encounter. Celebrating and empowering the feminine to come forward and lead us both in our inner experience, all the way up to our governing and institutional bodies. Feminism, to me, is acting in accordance with our Mother Earth, and acting in harmonious, cooperative union with all living beings.
Q: Do you have any upcoming events, exhibitions, or news you'd like to share?
B: I'm excited to share that my work will be taking on myriad new forms! I'll be moving into the realms of theatre, publishing, design, speaking engagements and much more, there is a lot of ground work being laid at my studio now for a really powerful year ahead! I can't wait to unveil it all!
Illustrations by BUCKLEY
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