Tag: art after illness

For decades, Nerea Azanza couldn’t create. Not because she stopped loving art, but because a medical mistake silenced the part of her that made it possible. When her creativity finally returned, she didn’t paint loudly. She painted tiny human faces fragile, almost dissolving into vast spaces of line and structure. Because to her, we are dust in a universe we barely respect. And humility, after everything, felt necessary.

In this interview, Australian painter Alyssa Joy Black talks about how time spent sitting in her garden during a long period of illness slowly guided her back into painting. She shares how this shift changed her practice, what helped her start creating again, and what she hopes people notice when they stand in front of her work.