Studio Visit with artist Siobhan Humston

Several years ago I stumbled across artist Siobhan Humston’s work online and have been following her work ever since. I was fortunate to meet Siobhan recently and she graciously allowed me to have a studio visit with her. She has been in her current live/work studio for about 5 months after completing her MFA in the United Kingdom.  I was excited to talk to her because she is one of the few artists I know that has an interdisciplinary practice that includes painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fibre arts and installation.  One of the reasons that Siobhan pursued her MFA degree was to explore how she could merge all these disciplines together.

I loved seeing how she organized her studio space to accommodate different work areas specifically for drawing, painting, music and writing as well as living.  Seeing how she mapped out ideas for her projects ranging from pinned up sketches and photos to her collection of natural materials really reinforced for me the importance of surrounding yourself with these visual reminders to help guide and enhance the planning process.

In her work, she is interested in combining aspects of nature with the man made.  I was inspired by how she is able to translate her passion and connection to nature in a meaningful way through different disciplines.  I could see how each art form expresses this theme slightly differently but when combined all together would provide an incredible experience for the viewer much like when all the parts of an orchestra come together.  It was also reaffirming to know that it was possible to focus on more than one art form in your practice. Leaving her studio, I was inspired and already thinking of new approaches to my own work.

Siobhan will be participating in the Eastside Culture Crawl this year and it would be a shame if her studio wasn’t on your list to visit. She is located at the Arc on 1701 Powell Street in Vancouver, BC.