Gini Wade
Participating in We Live With The Land & The Land as Other
I am an artist/printmaker specialising in stone lithography, based in Mid Wales.
I worked as an illustrator and childrens’ book author for many years.
Since transitioning from being an illustrator to an artist, my prints and paintings draw on myths and dreams, with a dash of the dark side. I am a DJ, and dance and celebrations also inform many of my images.
Since I am not in any sense a landscape artist, I have had to consider how my practice connects to this project. How am I connected to the land I live in and how best to communicate it visually? These questions have given me a fresh stimulus. Eventually I decided to explore the subject through images from the ancient stories of the first four branches of the Mabinogi.
I am familiar with Welsh myths as I have illustrated many of them for Welsh language publishers. Without exception, they are firmly rooted in the land and the natural world of Wales.
On a personal level, this project has inspired me to take long walks in my immediate environment. I have been extremely fortunate to have lived in a beautiful Mid Wales valley for fifty years, and while familiarity certainly hasn’t bred contempt, in the last few years I spent more time walking in new places. Now I am re-exploring my home hills with a fresh eye.
