Judith McNicol
Judith McNicol (b.1948) used to be an earth scientist but, after becoming ill with CFS/ME, she found herself becoming an intuitive artist and exploring interior rather than exterior worlds. She began drawing maps of her inner universe, where she was able to explore the meaning and origin of matter. She says she is searching to understand how and why she is the way she is, and what greater, spiritual forces may lie just beyond her awareness. McNicol finds it hard to give titles to her different ‘drawinks’, as they all portray the one universal state: This Is How It Is. She never knows in advance what the line will become, so each ‘drawink’ is an exciting voyage towards new awareness and understanding. She has noticed how her ‘drawinks’ have become blacker and stronger over the years, demonstrating her inner voice becoming more assured.
In 1999, together with other like-minded artists, McNicol set up Artesian Arts, an arts charity designed to support self-taught, visionary and marginalised artists on their/our own inner creative journey. They organised exhibitions and published an international magazine of ‘Upwelling Art’. Her work has been exhibited in the UK, USA, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Russia, and the Far East, and she has published a book of her ‘Drawinks; from 1994-2004, entitled Mapping the Inner Universe.
EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
2016-18 One Bare Foot Square. Uncooked Culture, Outsider Art Gallery, The Hermitage, Amsterdam. Subsequently touring Thailand (Chiang-Mai University), Spain, France, Ghana, South Korea
2006-08 Internal Guidance Systems, USA Visionary Art Tour
2004 Art as Therapy for the Soul. Artesian Exhibition, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
2000 Visions et Créations Dissidentes, Exposition collective international, Musée de la Création Franche, Bègles, France
2001 Visions imprévus, Sardine Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
