We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Noor Adwan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Noor below.
Noor, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?
I can’t create if my mental health is suffering. So I try to prioritize that first and foremost by taking care of the basics: getting enough sleep, eating good food and staying hydrated, and fitting movement and exercise into my weekly routine. It’s harder to cultivate a creative spirit if you don’t feel well. And sometimes you can double-dip: I get a lot of inspiration from going on walks outside.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My art career started online about a decade ago when I started my Instagram, @artsypeach. It wasn’t my initial intention to start a business; I just wanted to share my art with the world. But my content sort of exploded, and I ended up gaining about 100,000 followers in just a couple of weeks. I decided that was a sign to try using my platform to make a living, so that experience kick started my art career.
Since then I’ve gone through countless artistic phases, but something that really characterizes my practice now is giving new life to broken or abandoned objects. I’m a regular at my local thrift stores, and always looking out for fun new substrates to paint on. I’ve painted on an old tube TV, broken glass, scratched records from the trash, COVID-19 tests and various instruments. That wasn’t always my thing ― I used to paint on more traditional surfaces like canvas but I found it a little dull. There’s something extra rewarding about taking something that used to be trash and bringing it to life again in your hands.
Starting mid-June and ending late July, I will have a collection of these found objects on view at the fine dining restaurant Ephemera in downtown Colorado Springs. The show, titled “Fairy Circles,” will feature about a dozen thrifted mirrors that I’ve painted to resemble gateways to whimsical fantasy realms.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Consistency, consistency, consistency. You can have natural talent, or all the time or art supplies in the world, but none of that will matter if you’re not consistently prioritizing your practice. It’s hard to be consistent. Sometimes you’ll get art block. Sometimes you’ll feel awful and low-energy. But if you don’t develop the discipline to keep going, you’re going to stagnate. The best thing beginner artists can do is simply create as much as possible, as consistently as possible. Everything else will fall into place with time.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
While I’ve been painting and creating for over a decade, I only decided recently to give full-time professional artistry a shot. I’ve always been stuck in a little social media bubble, with few connections to the outside art world. But that changed last November when I began pursuing art full time. I applied to gallery shows for the first time ever, and subsequently showed (and sold!) art in-person for the first time ever. Now I’ve been in a handful of group shows and have three solo shows coming up before the end of the year. It’s definitely scarier than showing art over the internet, but I’m glad I gave it a try!
Contact Info:
- Website: nooradwan.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/artsypeach
Image Credits
Courtesy of Noor Adwan
