Private Dancer Painting

My work is about identity and celebrates difference. I am interested in the privacy / self-exposure dichotomy, who we are and how we self-present. I explore my subject through shape, line and surface decoration, using drawing, printing, paint, textiles & ready-mades. Art is central to my life; together with my artist's notes, the complete body of my work records my existential journey through time. I currently work in studios in London and France. I enjoy organising and curating community arts events, most recently as global founder/curator of 'The Covid Chronicle'. Measuring 36 x 1metres, it equals the 'Bayeux Tapestry', and records first hand experience of the 2020-21 plague in stitch. (https://www.thecovidchronicle.org). The Covid Chronicle toured the UK in 2022 and is now housed and open to public view at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital. Each metre square has been framed by Acrylidex and the whole work needs a buyer: when one is found, the proceeds would be donated to MIND, the mental health charity. My first degree in Education & French majored in developmental psychology, which informed my second degree in Fine Art and Design, where my art explored the construction of personal identity and the nature-nurture debate. The degree piece was shortlisted for the Celeste Art Prize. My working career began in the fashion industry, from teaching at Lucie Clayton's School of Modelling, to selling ready-to-wear collections to the trade for designers Bill Gibb, Zandra Rhodes, Jack Mulqueen, John Bernstein. In recognition of 10 years community work in the arts, I was proud to be awarded the Guardian Civic Award for Arts & Entertainment in Merton, London (2014). This included organising/curating several local group exhibitions, notably at Merton Priory Chapter House in celebration of its 900 years anniversary; I was simultaneously curator of the art made at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability for 5 years; and between 2010-2014 I co-founded of the Merton Arts Trail. Artists influencing my practice include Victor Vasareli, Henri Matisse, Cindy Sherman, Alexander McQueen, Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois, Pablo Picasso, Diego Velasquez, Michelangelo Caravaggio, Arthur Rackham. The paintings presented on this site are the tip of my working iceberg. Some of it is not for sale, though I am always open to commissions for which Saatchi would be given their due commission. www.saatchiart.com/WendyBliss https://www.thecovidchronicle.