Fleur Wickes 01 05 2026

I didn't go to art school. I went to the work.

My work has saved me. It's been the place I go to understand how it is that I feel.

I studied photography in 1989. Spent two decades as a portrait photographer. Published short stories and poetry. Began making text-based artwork.

Built a successful studio practice. Burnt out. Questioned everything.

Thought I'd go get myself an MFA. I was there for seven days, like Jesus.

I needed my thinking to be mine and mine alone. I've always needed to go my own way.

Take the long way round.

I'm an emotionalist.

I used to make text-based work that described how I felt in words. Now I'm reaching directly for the feeling itself. Marks, glyphs, symbols. My internal weather. The glyph figures, the spirit forms, the lone figure moving through her darkness. These paintings become source material for photographs. The photographs get painted back into. The process is my way of thinking through the feelings.

It's taken thirty-six years and a great deal of courage to get here. My work is no longer well-behaved. It feels wild. I'm exhilarated. And scared.