Get to know the Artist:

Shira Fox

"I was brought up in the affluent Eastern suburbs of Sydney. after behavioural problems in primary school, I went and completed High school at Newtown High school of the performing arts. I was a music student playing Trombone and Viola but my passion and skill was in visual arts, mainly drawing and painting.I moved to the UK at age 18 and then to the Netherlands. After working for a year in Amsterdam I moved to Rotterdam, the city with the largest harbour in the world. I had a great time working in hospitality and experimenting it’s alcohol and drugs. At age 23 I started Art School at the renounced Willem de Kooning Academy where I graduated from four years later primarily having worked with performance, painting and video.As my mental health was not great and I needed some stability I studied to be a nurse and then worked in Aged Care for 8 years.Spiraling out of control with mental health and drug I spent years in and out of hospitals, eventually, 5 years ago returning to Australia.In the last 5 years I have been living social housing and have been obsessively drawing, everyday up to 10 hours a day. My drawings are of my surroundings, Eastlakes my suburb, the incredible flora and fauna around my unit block and fantasies and dreams that come to me. I also draw portraits of people, kids and animals which have been very popular.I see myself as an Outsider artist as I do not believe my work now has been formed by any art practice I may have received. I work in my own little world, “depicting extreme mental states, unconventional ideas and elaborate fantasy worlds”My work is an expression of my mental health, a schizophrenic reality influenced by trauma and personal experience.Lately I have been trying to expand my art practice into becoming a professional artist, online, and in person at market stalls which have been quite successful. I drew a series of black and white drawings of the area I live and the Mayor of Bayside council bought one for the mayoral office.I am interested in expanding my practice further through mentorship, publications and exhibitions. As I love to draw, it is my passion I see a positive future, compared to 5 years ago when I saw no light at the end of the tunnel. My art is my whole world and is light whimsical as well as dark and frightening. It is everything that I am.

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I hope you find joy in my works, they are made with love. "