Artist Readings

An invitation to look at your work and life in a completely different way

"Marijke has a special way of gently probing and guiding, which led me towards breakthrough moments of self reflection and a renewed sense of confidence and self-worth."— Laura Nifhlaibhin, artist

An artist reading is a new kind of studio conversation, where we will be exploring the kinds of questions you are asking yourself about your work. Above all, it's about seeing where you are holding yourself back and recognising what is looking to emerge.

Why let old heartbreak or assumptions decide your future direction? We all have had to contend with disappointments and certain expectations on the paths we follow as artists. What I have discovered is that it is a real privilege to accompany artists through a reading and a journey into their interior lives. We all carry parts of ourselves that are original, hopeful and full of possibility. They are often surprisingly vulnerable and, more often than not, they need protecting—especially from ourselves.

Rather than letting conditioning or assumptions determine where you are going next, a reading is a chance to look at what wants to become visible.

I use illustrated tarot cards because images have a striking capacity to get us to look at ideas from a different angle. In doing so, we begin to explore the treasures of the subconscious mind. This isn't fortune telling, but a way of revealing the unspoken contracts we have made with ourselves—about success, failure, love, money, belonging or what we believe is possible.

For me there are no bad cards; they simply reflect different aspects of yourself. The cards can give you a jolt of recognition, act like a good friend who encourages you, or tell you a truth that ultimately proves liberating. At other times they can be funny and even disarming.

Alongside the reading, you can choose to receive an original drawing created in response to the card that feels most transformative for your practice.

I love the multiple meanings of the word draw.

To draw.

To draw out.

To be drawn towards.

To draw into being what is possible.

Rather than illustrating the reading, the drawing seeks to draw out and evoke what is waiting to emerge.

Whether you choose the reading on its own or also commission the accompanying drawing—which can be placed in your studio like a talisman or mascot, cheering you on—I hope you leave with the sense that certain outcomes are not inevitable and that "this is just the way things are" is rarely the whole story. We have far more agency than we often imagine.

Perhaps the greatest gift of the reading is discovering that many of the things we thought were inevitable are simply assumptions that have gone unquestioned.

Or, to paraphrase Rainer Maria Rilke, we are invited to live new questions.