Artist Statement
Natasha Davy is a British artist who creates large-scale paper panoramics exploring mental health issues fused metaphorically with her home land, Norfolk’s coastal surroundings.
Her work is inspired by the then fascinating wild Ted Ellis panoramics room seen as a youngster on a school trip at the Castle Museum in Norwich and a trip to see the Bayeux tapestry in France many years later. She reflects “I loved the feeling of walking alongside the imaginary wonderland – of being part of the creation and interpretations of one’s mind. It felt a bit like Lewis’s walking through the wardrobe, entering another world, and leaving the old one behind.”
Davy also carries ideas and practices ranging from those of Anselm Kiefer, Dryden Goodwyn, William Kentridge, Michael Andrews and John Virtue, all of which use scale and metaphor, as well as raw materials.
Once doused with an anxiety condition, Davy used nature and walking initially to counteract her constantly fearful mind. However, after walking the 100mile Norfolk Coastal Path over five long days, she came home and put her artistic skills to use, reflecting and working on a 140m visual paper panoramic journey echoing the trials and tribulations of the physical activity, geography, geology, history, metaphor and mental challenges she endured.
The result is evident, but promisingly, so is the therapeutic value of the making process involved. By using drawing to ‘voice’ her anxieties in an expressive, symbolic and metaphorical way, unconsiously she revealed her inner fears and was able to finally discuss them aloud with support. Davy managed to reduce her daily medication dramatically and is now able to use her working drawings as an opening into discussions about mental health issues and healing – something she was too anxious to ever disclose to anyone else before. She states that “Art is a valuable outlet, allowing one to deliver unconsious desires to voice what we can’t vocalise.“
Now Natasha uses her panoramas as a soundboard to help others. She displays them openly in public, natural coastal areas where they were initially created – ready for the audience to walk the coastal journey as she did, using the drawings to help them not feel alone in their minds but to express and share their issues however they can with others if needed.
Natasha Davy
Helpful contact links
You are not alone – if you can’t talk about it, draw it.
I wish to thank all my family, friends, and past and present art tutors
(you all know who you are 🙂 ) who have supported me through my black dog days and encouraged my work to grow. Xx
Website header image shows work from 2024. All images are subject to copyright.