Bethany Tibbles
Fear of the Dark
2020
59.4 x 84.1 cm
Acrylic on paper
This piece is inspired by the song "Fear of the Dark" by Iron Maiden. It is part of my first series for my current project where I am looking at emotional relationships to music. This song always resonated with me as a child as I had a severe fear of the dark, and this explained exactly how I felt. The painting took the form of a story as I was painting it. The figure in the middle in the dark being what is real, and everything around the figure being the fear, and the overthinking.
This painting was created using associative synesthesia, and these paintings are very instinctive to me. I just paint what I feel, and tweak it until I'm happy with the whole composition; until it reflects what I'm experiencing in my mind.
My work expresses the unknown in the known. Exploring various mental health conditions, my work allows me to physicalise these otherwise invisible conditions. Spanning various materials and mediums, I aim to make visual representations of these mental health conditions in the form that seems fitting at the time. Sculpture, painting and photography are strong mediums in my work that allow me to explore a visual world of the world hidden away in our minds.
Recently, using techniques learned in meditation, alongside associative synesthesia, I explore the visual world of music. Using different materials to paint on, the paint takes a life of its own, dancing across the surface, allowing me to visualise the world inside my mind. I have been exploring how I visualise music I have different relationships to, from having a strong emotional relationship to the song, to music from a movie I’ve seen, to music I’ve never heard before. This is an ongoing project which will allow me to see how my perceptions of music already in place influence how I see it. Comparing the art I make in response to each of the groups of music will be really informative to my practice.
Instagram: @tibbles.art