Artist Biography
Lily Friis is a visual artist living and working in Meanjin/Brisbane in Queensland Australia. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Community Wellbeing at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. With a major in Visual Arts and a minor in Psychology, she is interested in the therapeutic use of visual art and creativity. With experience in textiles, and a Diploma of Applied Fashion and Merchandising, Lily is passionate about the process of handmade and creating pieces that have signs of human hands and creation.
Her practice has developed into one that explores themes of personal interior and wellbeing as a way of understanding life, experiences and memories. With a passion for process-based mediums, Lily is currently expanding her skills in the areas of printmaking, ceramics and drawing.
With experience in running creative social events, through thread it together, Lily is interested in how visual art can be utilised to strengthen community, improve therapeutic practice and positively impact mental wellbeing. Lily’s creative practice explores how creativity can be utilised in a therapeutic context to regulate the nervous system, process feelings and improve mental wellbeing. Her previous experience, current creative practice and ongoing education provide Lily with an opportunity to pursue a career in therapeutic and community art contexts.
Artist Statement
As an emerging therapeutic art practitioner, my art practice has developed into one that allows me to process and explores themes of personal interior and wellbeing as a way of understanding life, experiences and memories.
This exploration involves the examination of everyday rituals, as identified in my works titled The ones who hold, consideration of the spaces we inhabit and how they are created, as explored in When it feels like home, and investigation into the everyday processes that allow us to escape from reality, as depicted in To another place.
The painted works further delve in to these themes of personal interior and wellbeing by exploring specific experiences of my life. These include the agency and freedom of an artist during the process of creating work, as explored in Your choice to make, the realisation that humans are complex beings with varied skills and interests, as depicted in Freedom in duality, and the visual exploration of memories and how we view our life when we look to our past, as investigated in Down memory lane.
As an artist interested in utilising art processes in a therapeutic space, this practice deals with processing internal emotions, life experiences and personal beliefs.
