Anarkitty

Emma Geary AKA Anarkitty is a 34-years old Pop-Surrealist artist born in a small village in Northern Ireland called Ballycarry. In 1999 she graduated the University of Ulster in Belfast and gained a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communications. Upon graduation, she moved to London for 6 years where her work on digital based character illustrations appeared in ads and magazine publications. Emma also created works for the likes of MTV, BBC and Pictoplasma. Later she returned back to Northern Ireland where she started moving the digital characters onto canvas.  In 2008 The Frameworks Gallery in Belfast launched her first solo exhibition.

This short summary of Emma’s bio though says nothing in particular of her path as an artist. Moving from a small town to the metropolitan city turned to be a major step and driver of creativity. It was a liberating and empowering experience for a girl in her early twenties. In the English capital, Emma was introduced to a series of graffiti artists such as Banksy, The London Police, Flying Fortress, and Dalek.  She was particularly attracted by the works of Miss Van and Faffis.

Taking a step back in time, as a child Emma was actually inspired by classic illustrations. She was surrounded by a lot of illustrated books that her dad used to bring her, with artists such as Alan Lee, Kay Nielson, Arthur Rackham, and John Tenniel’s drawings of Cheshire cat (Alice’s adventures in Wonderland).

The artistic experiences of Emma’s childhood in her home town as opposed to the London underground culture gave to her technique an inadvertent sort of dualism. Influenced from manga, tattoo, pinup girls, graffiti and toy cultures her paintings possess a child-like sweetness covered by dark undertones. She uses outlines that are strong and controlled whereas herblending technique is soft and light.

Emma likes to think of herself as of a self-thought artist since graphics has had a definite influence on her style and way of looking things. She strives keep her curiosity and avoid becoming too entrenched in a comfort zone as therein lies predictability. She keeps learning and evolving and although her experiments often go with frustration and anxiety, they bring their own elation when successful.