BIO
About VenusVoodoo Art
VenusVoodoo was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1981. She moved around a lot but for most of her early life settled in between Pretoria and Johannesburg. Her love for art started at a very early age when she was just old enough to take her mother's makeup to draw under the bed and on the walls. Shortly after her father brought home reams of old printer paper for her to create her heart's desire on, however no crayons coloured as deeply vibrant a red as moms 'Velvet Rouge' lipstick. This is when she became enthralled by bright unapologetic colour.
She attended weekly after school art classes all her young life until she was old enough to audition and study at both of South Africa's Art specialist High Schools. She attended National School of the Arts in Johannesburg and when her family moved, she attended Pro Arté Alphen Park in Pretoria where she Matriculated in 1999. Her specialist subjects included Print Making, Puppetry, Sculpture, Drawing, Painting, Design and History of Art. In later years she went on to receive her Graphic Design Degree in 2004 from The Design Centre College of Design in Johannesburg. She left South Africa and settled in England where she completed a master's degree with distinction in Digital Advertising from Portsmouth University in 2006. She went on to complete and win and an International Study Grant at Portsmouth to commence a Doctoral Degree in Digital Games Based Learning, but was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2009 and left her studies after two years with a Master's Degree in Scientific Research Methods.
She was diagnosed in 2019 with early onset PTSD and EDD (Emotional Disfunction Disorder) which means she feels emotions, good and bad in extremes to average people. She suffered years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of different people. She started using her trauma and life experiences and turning her deep emotions into colourful creations of healing.
She is a multifaceted artist who likes exploring varied mediums to express her feelings. Her unique use of colour, textures and medium combinations depicts her emotions that comes from a belief that no single emotion can be represented by a single colour. Emotions for her are made up of more than one element, for example anger is often entwined with fear, pain and forsakenness. All playing a part of a single image in which its depth can only be felt in multiple layers, entanglements and intensities of colour.
The artist doesn't subscribe to any one specific style of art but rather utilizes her many years of art training in multiple disciplines to combine each emotional event as uniquely as it was experienced. The only element that runs through all of her works is a strong element of a vibrant rainbow pallet to convey her message that 'Even though you suffer, your fallen tears can reflect everlasting rainbows on your soul. As each event that has led to a shed a tear can also build you stronger if you keep hope and learn from it'.