Welcome folk
Hello, I hope you are very well today. Please Browse and enjoy my art.
My art has been there for me in the darkest times, providing me purpose, process and joy. Deconstructing photo images I have taken matches my patchwork mind. I love working with fragments to make a whole image.
The fragments form together, making sense of my fragmented mind.
Originally, I used magazine cuttings then more recently I use my own photographs. I feel I see life in layers, of time, of texture, patterns in shape and context. Some pieces are pure image manipulation and some I am expressing emotions, situations and dreams. A lot of my work is a celebration of the natural world.
Please enjoy looking at these images I have made.
- Bryony Boughton
Cut It Out
COLLAGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES
Bryony Boughton was born in the South of early 1970s England. Her family moved to Cumbria in 1979. She grew up as a creative youth, her collage obsession began in 1994 propelling her to a place at University College Northampton, studying Visual Arts BA in 1997.
Her work references many experiences from her life. In 2024 she listed her main topics as her love the natural world, dreams, spirituality, mania and joy. Some of her work also discusses trauma, addiction, domestic violence, coma, brain injury, disability, mental health challenges, gardening, isolation and cancer.
Just take a blue one - 1994
This was the first collage I made. A wayward youth and experiments, dabbling with fun and addiction. 1000 blue 20mg Valium tablets nicked from a chemist which made for a messy few weeks for a few folk. Not big or clever but there was not much fun on offer in West coast Cumbria. A mixed up 20 something finding a way that soothed an already traumatised soul. Just take a blue one, it will be ok.
Happy Donkies - 2008
My third abode in Spain was a 12 x 8 foot shed in the foothills of Limaria mountain, in the grounds of a donkey sanctuary. There were only two donkeys left along with two horses, six dogs some chickens, lizard’s and scorpions. I was very happy in a deluded manner and drinking every day to cope. It was July/August so the shed was a hot box sweat box.
Luckily my landlord let me sit out the hottest part of the day in his farm house. I started using one of the other sheds as a studio, though the large spider eggs in a corner were very off putting. Limaria mountain was mined for its gypsum crystal. The landscape was grey slate peppered with that white gypsum.
ComaKarma - 2010/11
I remember waking up for a split second a couple of times. Struggling & seeing others, medical staff. Thrashing about, I was pulling tubes out of my body and then being sedated again. When I was past critical the hospital tried to wake me daily. To see if I would wake up but I was distressed and I struggled. Mum said I was crying lot – One time the struggling and tube scene tumbled and roared – In my mind I was looking at the open back doors of a big lorry, I saw myself roll out with water. Before I landed, I joined my watching self. The nurse and doctors all peered and said Hello. They had watched me for nine days while muttering to my family about brain dead and brain disease. The induced coma had created wild dreams in my head. A few stories entwined over 216 hours of dream time. The dream involved the hospital, a very futuristic hospital. I was breathing fast and heavy. I was feverish. All I had was my eyes, my thoughts and a crazy left leg that kicked out constantly on auto pilot. So much so the skin on my heal was worn off and needed bandages. A puppet on a string. Tubes, tubes, tubes.
Stream of consciousness written in 2010/11 by Bryony
Am I there yet - 2016
After 6 years of working hard in therapy and with life choices, I felt a level of sanity I’d not felt for over a decade. I was very alone but trying to venture out by volunteering. I was making pictures again which was a good sign. I am I there yet? Nah not really and where is there? There were many more incarnations of me as I continued on with therapy and healing.
Fracture - 2023
The fragmentation I feel my mind/brain/soul has undergone since the coma and subsequent brain injury. My memories, working memory, personality, all elements of me. A kaleidoscope of an induced coma, near death experience, life changing physical disability – PTSD and Bipolar. A right cocktail of delights that took nigh on 19 years to unravel and put back together in some kind of sensible way. My mind still feels fragmented but I can see more clearly these days.
Banshee in me 2023
My counsellor guided me on a Celtic shamanic journey to look for the voice of desperation that I felt in my soul. After running through a woodland to a grove, I entered a dense dark forest. I found a stone building and went inside. Inside the building was an opaque banshee woman screaming and whizzing around me. Fly diving past me, I ducked away pleading with her to calm down. She would not calm down. I ran out of the building only to find her outside before me and she chased me back in. It was only when I asked the banshee what was wrong and firmly said “I am leaving now and I won’t be stopped.” that she started to calm down. She started looking very different, kind of innocent but still not interested in communicating with me. I decided to leave. Animals met me outside the building and escorted me through the dark forest. Round about this time I was out near Winlatter forest with a friend and spotted an interesting looking tree, which you can see in this picture. The standing stones are Castlerigg standing stones near Keswick, Cumbria.
Hanging Lund Waterfall - 2024
I moved to the end of the world house, RiggSike, Mallerstang valley near Kirkby Stephen at the end of 2016. It was a case of remote idealism for me but very impractical as the house was ¼ mile up a gated track. Tesco delivered my food but apart from that I was too dependent on others. Not that I needed much, but I loved it there in nature. Hanging Lund waterfall was directly behind the house, it was a beautiful place to be. Across the valley was the Carlisle to Settle railway on which steam trains regularly chuffed past.
Arousal Carousel – 2024
This is about the fun feelings you have when you meet someone special, Woo Hoo. A spinning slightly scary motion of grins and possibilities. The missing daffodil trumpet represents the cancerous tumour removed from my boobie (in the best possible taste) on 15th Aug 2024.
