INBLUEM x Anjuna
'EARTHLY EMBRACES'
Introducing Anjuna, the talented Byron-based artist Bluem had the honour of collaborating with to create the one-of-kind piece titled ‘Earthly Embraces’ adorned on our Soul Soaps and limited edition t-shirts and totes. Anjuna's artistic journey is a testament to the transformative power of motherhood, a journey that has unearthed her inner confidence and allowed her creative spirit to flourish. In a recent interview with
INBLUEM, she candidly discussed her creative evolution, self-care rituals as a mother of three, and the inspirations behind her mesmerising artworks.
'Earthly Embraces'
Produced by INBLUEM ~ Created by Hazily Film
Produced by INBLUEM ~ Created by Hazily Film
My name's Anjuna, most people call me Junie. I was born and raised in Byron Bay where I'm now living again. I am a full-time mum and artist.
Can you share a little about your creative journey and how you discovered art?
Honestly, I can't remember how it started. I feel like I've always needed to express myself creatively in a way, but I definitely feel since having babies, it's given me the confidence that I needed to share my practice with the world.
How do you make time for yourself? How do you practise Self Love?
I feel like I'm still learning this being a mum of three babies, but a big one is nourishing myself with real food and real water, and that's basically the only one that I show up every day for.
But other than that, I take time out for myself with saunas, magnesium baths and surfing. I love taking myself for a walk, just being kind to myself. My self love ritual that I practise every day is making myself a really nice, nourishing drink and making sure I take my herbs every day.
What inspires you?
I think what inspires me most is seeing other people go for what they want without any fear holding themselves back, seeing other people go for what they want fearlessly.
What gives you energy?
Taking care of myself and a good night's sleep, which is quite rare these days.
Are you able to tell us more about the images that feature in your art?
I think my creative process has always been finding connections in things and trying to figure out my place in the world and making sense.
Some of the recurring motifs in my artwork are hands, flowers, cowboys, birds and I feel like all of these things are just trying to find connection between us and myself and other people - it’s a moment of just trying to make sense of it all. I feel like the hands that feature in my work are just about connection. When we want to understand something, like watching my baby, she just touches things, she grabs everything and it just feels like our vessel to connect with the outside world.
The cowboy that features in my artworks as well, I think it comes from a curiosity about the character behind things. Like the original cowboy I made had two cowboys standing behind each other and I feel like we've all got one side of ourself we show, but everyone's got like this hidden cowboy - you can try and hide it but I feel like it's trying to connect the two, I guess people call it their shadow selves these days, right?
How do you handle creative blocks or periods of self-doubt? Are there any strategies you’ve found helpful overcoming them?
These days I’m less hard on myself and I realise that it always passes. I think it's important to walk away from what you're doing for a period of time as well if it's not going anywhere, just step away. My analogy is like if you can't remember a word and you're trying to force it and force it and then you need to just drop it for a while and then it'll come to you when you're about to fall asleep or something. I think I just don't have enough time to overthink it these days, but I know how awful creative blocks feel and I've been in them a lot. I didn't paint for two years once and I missed it, but it was really nice because you just have to trust that you come back to your practice with a whole new perspective as well.
But I think a big one for me too is trying to use different mediums. So instead of just painting or printmaking, I'll try to play with clay or food or make jewellery or whatever it is because I think one will inform the other and it takes the pressure off the main thing you're trying to do. Just take the heat off what you're doing, come from another angle.
What was your inspiration behind ‘Earthly Embraces’ - the piece you produced for
INBLUEM?
The piece I created for
INBLUEM came about as it's just about our connection to plants and trust in them and it's as though the plants are holding us when we allow and trust in that and I feel like this piece is my interpretation or portrait of what I feel
INBLUEM is.
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