I’m Anne-Laure Carruth, and welcome to my blog, where I’ll take you on a journey exploring multiple mediums of art and the beautiful places around the world that have shaped my style.

I’ll share my philosophy of art, my creative process and inspirations, and my future ambitions!

What is a Multidisciplinary Artist?
1. My Latest Projects and Focus
My Process for Creating a Work of Multidisciplinary Art
1. he Oaxaca Exhibition 2018
Finding Inspiration in Alexander Calder’s Art
Building Toward my Own Unique Style of Art

What is a Multidisciplinary Artist?

To me, being a multidisciplinary artist means I’m not stuck in a box, limited by the expectation of doing just one thing. During my time as an artist, I’ve dabbled in many forms of media including painting and drawing, woodcuts and prints, and sculpture and design. I even incorporate my background in architecture when designing installations and spaces. So “multidisciplinary” is a useful umbrella term to refer to all my artistic exploits.

When people ask me what I do I also like to say I’m a “creative explorer” because this term encompasses a lifestyle as well. I’m exploring the world through a creative lens. I’m driven by my sense of curiosity, the desire to test new things, and the thrill of experimentation. My process is always about learning and developing new understandings of the world I’m inhabiting.

Calling myself a multidisciplinary artist or a creative explorer makes me feel like I have the freedom to grow and change as my life takes different courses. I know I will have different chapters in my life, and my art and practices are going to change accordingly. Defining myself broadly gives me the flexibility to see and embrace how my work ebbs and flows.

My Latest Projects and Focus

I might focus exclusively on fine arts for a time, then drift back to design and architecture, and I love this variability. More specifically, the words that encompass my works are arts, design and architecture. I completed an art foundation year before studying architecture at university. Recently, my work has focused on woodcuts, drawing, and painting, but I’ve branched into collages and the use of other materials as well. I’ve also been working as a spatial and 3D designer, a field which is applicable to everything from furniture and exhibitions to full buildings.

My Process for Creating a Work of Multidisciplinary Art

One of the pieces I’ve made that required many skillsets and had lots of different stages to it is Sacred Drift, the huge woodcut print I made in Mexico in 2017 during my art residency.

First, I had to learn woodcutting. I bought a huge piece of plywood from a timber yard. I started by learning how to mark make with woodcarving tools. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that I acquired the wrong kind of wood. The piece I bought was designed for construction, not woodworking, and every step was a battle. I ended up in a close relationship with the piece – every knot in the wood, the oozing resin – I couldn’t impose my will on it. I had to dialogue with the wood, and ultimately submit and surrender to the material I was working with, which was humbling.

When the carving was complete, I moved on to printmaking. This was a 2.4 x 1.2-meter piece of wood, which is huge and unwieldy! It wasn’t something I could print on my own – it took all the friends I’d made in Oaxaca. Four of us carried it to a friend’s studio that had a big enough print shop to print it. But then I realized there was no paper large enough to print it in one go. So I had to go source fabrics in the local market, and test which types would hold the ink well. Six of us ended up using rollers to print it. We made several copies.

The Oaxaca Exhibition 2018

But the artistic process does not end there. Exhibiting art is almost like stage design, setting up your art to control what people see first, and how they move through a created space. I like shaping environments, molding the space not just with physical objects but with the creative energies in the work itself. For me, being a multidisciplinary artist means thinking about the whole process of creating work and then showing it to other people. A piece of art does not have to be multimedia to be multidisciplinary.

Finding Inspiration in Alexander Calder’s Art

Many places and people have inspired me during my time as a “creative explorer.” I’ve always loved Alexander Calder, an American artist who spent a lot of time in France. He made paintings and drawings, but most famous are his kinetic arts – mobiles and sculptures, many featuring a lot of wire.

I love the varied scales and the many different materials he employed in his sculptures. In his 2D drawings, the fine lines, energy, and details are absolutely beautiful as well. His relationship between 2D and 3D work was always so fluid which is particularly inspiring. I love that he said his favorite drawing material is wire. It’s said he always carried around some wire and pliers so he could sketch what he created.

One of my favorite pieces is the Cirque Calder, a miniature circus featuring many individual sculptures. He was playful, channeling his inner child. I can see the joy he found in creating movement and kinetic art with little stories through his circus characters.

Alexander Calder’s Flamingo Statue, Source: Pexels

Building Toward my Own Unique Style of Art

Exploration is a defining element of my art. But I feel like my work will really come into its own when I find a way to incorporate the elements of design, architecture, and creative exploration into one holistic style. I hope to combine all my disciplines into a sustainable way of being and working. That’s my ambition and what I’m working towards. I’ll always lean toward one medium or another depending on the project I’m working on. But the more I can incorporate all 3 of these elements, the stronger my unique language of art will become.

Being a multidisciplinary artist is a rewardingly changeable journey, filled with paint, woodchips, cacti, and more! I hope you feel a sense of freedom and a thrill for life when you experience my art.