Amanda
Christine Cox - Contemporary Fine Art Painter
Amanda Christine Cox
was born in the London Borough of Greenwich, over 3 decades ago,
in a Victorian hospital that has long since been demolished. She
moved around a lot as an infant and was a wandering love-child
til the age of 3. Her father is a Londoner and her mother is from
Plymouth, and both cities fill that role of "homeland".
The social diversity of our capital city is a constant source
of new perspectives, and the rolling moors and open coasts of
Devon provide the contrast of peace and tranquility. She has lived
in suburbia most of her life and the environmental and social
patterns have ingrained itself into her interior chaos.
Painting, poetry and
short story writing happened most significantly at around age
6, before the conciousness of what it meant to be a creator dawned.
Awards for art were won at school and the idea of feedback gradually
shaped an idea of what worked in the world. The storyteller instinct
was bourne out and expression via art and craft ranged from painting
and drawing to puppet and modelmaking. Later, more art images
and literature were absorbed, influences added to the flow, and
predictably success in creative subjects at school followed. A
move to a private school which placed significant importance in
speech and drama and fine art ensured a burgeoning interest and
was a great cradle for creativity and exploration of performance.
Interests in singing and acting were indulged and encouraged.
Higher education beckoned but acedemic subjects being unattractive
to a teenager eager to make a few pounds and explore the world,
to work to live, the output was limited to personal projects and
the odd published article - seldom with an end-user in mind. But
despite being reclusive she did at one point hawk a portfolio
around graphic design and related industries, not all of it was
dismissed and she got offered a job in an architects firm in London,
which in the folly of youth she declined in favour of a more local
and better paying but ultimately more boring position. A direction
was required at this point and it seemed like a good idea to train
in TV and radio programme making. 3 years of college for this,
and 10 years of sporadic work followed. Pushing buttons was not
that exciting and the shift patterns left little time for making
art.
Anarchy prevailed.
The epiphany arrived mid 30's. Art college seemed the best avenue
to explore next.
After completing a
Foundation in Art and Design, and joining Camberwell College of
Arts, that authenticity and challenging anarchy remains: tho it
is a little less rough at the edges..
Experience with me
my world as I try to represent it..
and then leave it behind
or live with it
the choice is yours.