Worldbuilding is a big part of my art practice and a big part of my life. It satisfies my broad interest topics and keeps me being creative in different ways other than just painting.
Worldbuilding is just like the name: building a world. Writers in the fantasy and science fiction genre and game developers are the ones who use it the most for their job, but there is a big community of people who enjoy doing it in their free time. Writing about and spending time thinking about a world with different species, creatures, cultures, geography, languages, most of the time with magic systems.
Although I have been working on my own world for almost ten years, I have only recently started to cooperate it within my art practice. During school I have been working out how they fit together and although I am still finding my way in it, it has become a very important part.
The world is called Ardyn Najlyn, which translates to New World. The most developed part of the world is an island group called the Islands of Vandar. In my work you will also come across a language you will probably not know how to read. This language is called Simalyrē and has a grammar system, phonetics and its own alphabet. Sometimes I will make the translations known, but not always.
The fun thing is that you will not always be able to distinguish the difference between ‘real world’ stories and the stories coming from my world. I want this border to be blurred and people to question what they are seeing.
So, please tell me, what do you see when you observe my work? And whose story is it?
