Art to her is everything. It’s helped her through her darkest times, especially when she needed it the most during the coronavirus outbreak where she stated it was one of her “lowest points”. She felt like she was losing herself. Till one day, she was as she was scrolling through her feed on Instagram, she spotted a drawing on an account called @aisforavery. She was in love. She loved the complexity of the purple mixing with the purple. She loved the way it just spoke to her. She loved how the image spoke to her, how is it resonated with her. All the feelings and emotions at the tip of a paintbrush. That was the day she fell in love with art. The days following that was history, she couldn’t stop painting it was the only thing she said made her feel “whole”. She explained it was like she was being transported to a new location every day. A place where she felt like she had total control over what happened. It was her haven away from all the distress the pandemic had put upon her. She explains without art she doesn’t know where she’d be right now. And was something she didn’t want to think about further. 

 

She’d zoom call her friends and family in order to show of her masterpieces, and like many of us they could feel the emotion each piece evoked. Her family would describe her as a “prodigy in the making”. Which is why they encouraged her to upload her art on Instagram, they wanted her to show the world her pieces, they wanted everyone to be marvelled at how such a young girl could create art that made you made you feel the emotions it portrayed. After a lot of coaxing, she set up an account under the name @ravenpaints and in under an hour she garnered 1000 likes on her painting “WhoAMI”. From then on, the more pictures she uploaded the more positive the responses were like: Hannah457- “this is literally everything, I can’t stop crying it’s so beautiful” and johnlikespaint- “You’re literally the next Picasso.” With a flow of positive comments and an increase in followers daily, it came to no surprise that she was contacted by The National Gallery who had asked for her work to be featured in celebration for new young talent in the UK”. She says she “couldn't believe it”, it felt like “it was all a dream”, how could someone like herself be asked to have her artwork featured among artists like Vincent Van Gogh or Jan Van Eyck. Through encouragement from friends and family she said “yes”. This one decision led to more and more opportunities for herself such as finally meeting the woman that had inspired her to start this journey. 

 

Raven ends her interview with a short summary of how Art has and can heal you, she says: 

 

 “Art has truly opened countless of doors for myself as well as healing old scars I thought would never be healed. I believe Art brings people together, it acts as a comfort for those who create it and those who appreciate it.  above all, Art is for all to release their emotions on a blank canvas. ”