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As an artist we all must have a purpose, a purpose of our work. Whether this be to achieve an empty fulfilment of self-satisfaction of whether it be to communicate a message, highlight a problem within our own society or to education people with information that would otherwise not have come to their attention if it had not been for Art. 

Evidently widely misunderstood, the element of communication in the world of Art is in fact so strong that throughout history has been the foot of many pivotal and greatly historical moments. Now this does not mean just painting and drawing, as you know art is not just painting and drawing. Unless labelled with its pathway, art becomes a wide umbrella under which lay ‘the arts’ such as music, theatre, performance, writing, acting, film, music production - the list it particularly infinite. Yet from my perspective art has seemed to take many solitary paths as it has developed, with only few and far between that have worked to bridge these paths.

For me, this idea of communication pieced together when I was introduced to the idea of Socially Concerned Art Practice, and this notion was something that appealed to me as it did not shut down any barriers in terms of medium and technique. Whilst on the Foundation Course was where I began to clearly develop an identity, whilst always wanting to work with many different mediums of art to collaborate them together in their own rights, I also began thinking about the different areas in the production of art and the way it is managed to its full potential in order to meet its purpose as that piece of art, and this came down to the way it was curated. In fact the more I deluged into the idea of curating I came to the conclusion that all art is not possible without that final element of curating. Additionally, whilst exploring these different elements of art, I discovered a missing component in the work of many socially concerned artist. The element of self-taught information as I witnessed most information being communicated was that of specific knowledge to the artist already.

For me, as the artist Kendra Howard, I feel I have found my identity as an artist who wants to education and self-educate. I am a firm believer in never closing a door and always having an open mind, then you will always be left with more than one option, doing the same thing every day will bore you after a while! Regarding my developing future, I have a big ambition to combine several areas of 'the arts’ and begin to make interactive, multi-functional art that brings together other mediums of art that could compliment each other successfully. Whilst working under the name of Marina Tole, I invented myself a little quote, something that would allow me to become non-judgemental, open minded and more receptive to the new forms of art being self introduced and it was…

 

“Do not question art, Always let the art question you”