In this edition of our Artist Spotlight series, we sit down with Tapiwanashe Gurure, a multidisciplinary artist from Zimbabwe who grew up in Sheffield. We discuss the place of mindfulness in art, the power of routine in overcoming artist’s block, the process of painting live and more.
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You said that you started painting because of your desire to live in the present. I'd love to know how painting has allowed you to do that?
The journey started in COVID times when I was feeling a little bit lost. I'm not going to lie at the beginning of COVID, I thought it was all fake. I thought I would give it two weeks and we’d be back to normal. Then after two weeks, when I realised that we weren't going outside again, I thought I might as well do something. COVID started during my second year of Uni and at that time, all the artwork I’d usually do was quite interactive - film, doing interviews. I was at a bit of a loss because I knew I needed to carry on making stuff because it’s how I get through my day really.
I got this book called Mindfulness & the Art of Drawing which had loads of these exercises that I hoped would help me to calm down, because I was getting anxious a lot. This book was the first time that I’d heard you can do that whilst doing artwork, before I didn’t even know that was a thing. Once I started doing the exercises I felt myself not being as constantly anxious because it gave me a space to focus on doing my artwork and not worry about what happens afterwards. You might return to that anxious space afterwards but for that period of time, you can just be creative, be yourself and not worry about what else is going on in the big bad world. It gave me the opportunity to remove myself from that in an intentionally selfish way, just be intrinsically myself and paint the things that are around me. A lot of the subjects of my paintings are the things that are around me, so both physically and metaphorically doing those exercises let me focus on what was happening in the moment.
So that was the beginning of my painting journey really, just trying to calm down and not be so frantic when it felt like the world was dying.
This might sound like an odd question, but do you find it easy to make art, or do you have to be in a certain headspace to get painting?
Working the way I do now, I don’t have to be in a certain headspace as it’s become a routine - I know that if I do certain things, I can create. Before I’d have to just fall into being creative when I felt the urge to make something or was inspired by something. If anything went wrong in that process, I was immediately like I don’t want to make art anymore. One of my friends makes music and he says that if it takes him too long to load up his laptop or get his speakers together, he wouldn’t make anything.
It was the same for me until I started working the way I do now, where the outcome doesn’t really matter. It made me easily be able to jump into creating because I didn’t care what was going to happen. The practice is about me processing me and then the artwork follows.
What is that routine that helps you to create?
It starts off with ten minutes of meditating. Initially, I’ll focus on breathing or any basic mindfulness activity and then I’ll move onto ten minutes of mindful drawing. For this, I just pick a medium to draw with, use my breathing techniques and just try to be conscious of the page, the textures in my hand and how I’m feeling when I’m drawing. By the time the twenty minute little block is over, it’s so easy to flow into the bigger stuff or be creative in other ways. I usually pick something in the room to focus on, dissect it for as it takes until I get bored and then move on to the next.
But yeah, that's usually how it starts, almost like a twenty minute warm up to feel calm and present so I can move on to making.
At our exhibition party with The Five Points Project you painted twelve A4 paintings live across the course of the evening. Do you have any advice for artists that might be interested in getting into live painting and live performance in that way?
The only advice I'd have is to commit, like, double down in whatever you're doing. I think if you go balls to the wall on just doing that thing, it will turn out okay. Like, on the other side of that, it will turn out okay. I’ve done a few live art things where the outcome and the space has been wildly different. The only consistent thing has been me committing to going through my process and still doing the things that I’d usually do outside of a live art space. I know I have the skills, I know I have the ability, I know my processes and all I have to do is just double down and commit. Whatever comes out, comes out.
So trusting in your own abilities?
Yeah, exactly. Trusting your ability and committing 100% to your idea, never being half arsed. It’s like most things, if you half arse it it’s not going to run is it?
I would love to know if you have any goals or resolutions for 2025?
Not really. I kind of have life things. That process of meditation has got me to a position where a lot of things that I'm feeling have come up and now I need to work on those problems. I want to be active in my mental and physical well-being and I'm going to fully try to heal myself, like with going back to therapy. I’m not going to let that slip to the wayside just because it’s easier for me. So that’s my goal for 2025 - I just want to feel a bit better.
If you enjoyed this conversation with Tapi, make sure to check out our other Artist Spotlight interviews over on https://www.brushwrk.co.uk/blog and whilst you’re there, why not have a look through all of the fantastic art we have for sale from emerging artists? Pop into the website to see what catches your eye…
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