Meet Shirley Kaci

Artist Statement

Thank you for visiting my website, I’m delighted to be able to share a little about me and hope that you find your visit a worthwhile experience.

Delving deep into and understanding our own identity as an artist is not an easy task. I have worn many hats during my life. I’ve been an employee, a self employed freelance artist, a proprietor of an art gallery, an organiser of two art groups, trained in construction trades including bricklaying, interior decorating and even drove a digger and crane! So my creativity is a mash up of all my experiences so far.

I have had long periods of unemployment due to anxiety and depression and spent many hours in art psychotherapy.

During my younger days I was extremely rebellious due to unpleasant experiences both in the home and through education. I worked in caring roles and have always tried to consider others over and above my own needs including family.

My artworks are representations of my lived experiences prompted through my emotional responses to any given situation both past and present. This is evident in all my expressive sketches where my titles are relevant to each piece of work I create. The titles of my work invite you to challenge yourself as to the relevance and connection of the title to the imagery. Working from my unconscious mind without active control over the outcome of my paintings/sketches produces my reality as I know it.

Being motivated to create is like “answering the front door when the bell rings” It’s spontaneous, a call to action, it replaces the need to be medicated and acts as a visual diary which I’m later able to reflect upon. It’s my medicine, my fix if you like. It helps me to maintain my well-being by quietening my mind through the stroke of my brush or the marks I make with my pen. Enabling onlookers to seek a deeper meaning and connection with my creative expressions.

I’m a real lover of all animals and nature, I find my dogs to be a very calming influence on me and over the years I homed cats who also hold a very special place in my heart. Reflections of me, my journey, my identity, my life, my story conveyed as faces, forms and felines, collectives of people through time and space and my, concepts of facial expressions and their meanings obscured by the intermingling of lines, pattern and imagery often dream-like. Through my art I portray all that I absorb in silence and in isolation. A gift from heaven and the freedom from chaos. The art of doing without questioning without the need for validation. My creative expressions have no bounds. My desire to create headspace and to not be confined by societal norms makes way for beauty to be born and shared.