Rothnie Daly

Having graduated in 1996 from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, I did not actually create any art other than at hobby level or as part of teachig for a long time, my art taking a back seat to bringing up my family. After a tumultuous period in my life and diagnosis with a chronic pain condition, I had to radically change my life in order to reclaim my health and happiness. Beginning to unapologetically create art in my own way, was part of this re-emergence and reclamation of self. I have only begun to seriously create and attempt to show art in the last 2 years.

I currently stay in the South side of Glasgow and teach Art to young people who struggle to access the curriculum in a mainstream environment within special units at Govan High School. I love connecting with people and feel my life has imbued me with rich visual memories which emerge on my canvases, this often feels like a way of journaling. From attending school in Lagos, Nigeria to living in a house where my mother was a linguist and father, an international sports organiser, my home was always filled with people from across the globe. This fed into the broad base of cultural influences, wild stories and colourful characters in my life. I have a broad spectrum of artistic influences, ranging from the layers and colours of graffiti and street art, to the patterns and symbols of traditional art of indigenous peoples across the world. The latter causing me to consider my own symbolic images. I have always enjoyed the art of Henri Matisse, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Gustav Klimt, full of colour, texture and patterns.

Applying the materials is itself a tactile experience. I feel that the process and the resultant textures and mark-making can reveal, and release, all manner of emotions. At times these are rhythmical and meditative, at others frantic and energy-filled, often not using brushes but involving a lot of physical touch. Working intuitively, I use my art as a vehicle to express and understand my feelings, like a form of therapy .