Michaela Lesayova West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

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I am a largely self-taught artist, my art practice spanning work with natural colour and experimental and sustainable film photography. I was born in former Czecho-Slovakia and my present art practice is informed by my Slavic roots and folklore cultural heritage. I am a freelance artist, creative educator and I run creativity-wellbeing-nature connection micro-business called livingwell.

My art work with natural colour and film photography is deeply inspired by where I come from. Following the threads of my own story of migration; growing up on homesteads of my maternal and paternal grandparents where I took care of their household animals and tended to the plants and produce from their land; observing my grandmothers embroidering and making corn dollies are lived experiences which have defined my present art practice.

Informed by my own recovery of health, wellbeing and reconnection with the land, my social art practice centering communities and creative health in green and blue spaces feeds into my personal art practice. Both are rooted in ecology of place, Permaculture principles and ethics, taking care of the land and a source of identity which stems from active kinship with the land.

I enjoy experimenting with various alternative and sustainable photography processes like developing films with herbs and plants or developing photos with caffenol solution. I enjoy making cameraless prints like anthotypes and plant based chemigrams using flower and plant juices or household waste like vegetable peelings. I also taught myself how to make botanical inks which I draw and paint with or stain my photos with them.

I apply my natural colour practice to textiles and different types of animal fibres like wool or plant fibres like corn husks. I have an established practice of sampling natural colour throughout all seasons, either foraging seasonal growth like hawthorn, elderberries or alder cones, or growing traditional dye plants like marigolds, coreopsis or cosmos flowers. I feel passionate about sustainability of my art practice and often upcycle unwanted linens, old doilies or fabric off cuts. I also eco-prints textiles and paper with plants, flowers and household waste.