DANNI RUDIE
Multimedia Artist and Musician, Previous TEDx Speaker on ‘Creative Minds’ at the University Of Sussex. A highly motivated and self diligent Multi-Media Creator, with over 15 years experience in education and professionally. I specify in illustration and design and have been working as a Tattoo Artist and Freelance Illustrator for the last 5 years. I am currently working on my album that I have been writing for the last 15 years, I have been re visiting and sculpting it and I am really ready now to get it recorded.
WHAT’S YOUR STORY, WHO ARE YOU?
I was born in the North and raised in South West Wales, I've always loved to travel and explore, to learn about human beings, traditions, our mind and what connects us all. In 2014 I received my Bachelor Honours of Fine Arts at Kingston University & in 2010 won the West Wales Drawing Prize of the year. After Art school, I have dedicated my time to pursuing my passion for illustration and tattoo. I currently reside in Brighton as a resident Tattoo Artist at Blind Pig Tattoo Club, however much of my time is also spent working as an Artist and Musician.
WHAT GOT YOU HERE?
Honestly, a lot of blood, sweat and tears, sleepless nights and sitting with the understanding that it’s always a forever process. I think if you start at any chance to get an ego or some form of ‘know it all’ mentality then it’s time to give up, cause being a creative isn’t really just solely about the end result, it’s about the process and how you get there. I have scrambled and worked from the ground up, and had to restart and pick it all up and start again several times which I think has made me an incredibly resourceful and hardy person, despite my honesty and stand-no-bullshit mentality not being the most popular approach in a competitive industry. I mean if there’s no respect two ways, I’m out, I don’t think some people like that. Creative industries can be cut throat, some more than others and whether people like to admit it or not, even those that claim to not navigate in this way; from my experiences, they do, some are just better at hiding it and putting the game face on. In creative spaces, I think you’re always going to get the juggle of ego’s and in amongst the self deprecation of the Artist, alongside the desire to be known as human’s, everyone seems to be chasing it whether they care to admit it or not, some of us are fuelled by our misfortunes in life and other driving forces other than the material and the fake lifestyles, I don’t have the time to be chasing mask swapping and being around people that are trying to stab me in the back in the background, it makes no sense to me.
So what has got me to here, is my resilience and my strength to keep on going. With the help of people I have had in my life for a long time and my customers, I wouldn’t have the motivation to keep trying and learning. I think my driving force are all my experiences, my story as a person- that’s probably far too long to write here.
WHAT IS THE MISSION FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
I have always been an Artist from a young age, being creative for me is second nature, it heals and the method within making soothes. I have always felt an urge to make and in exploring this through Art School this helped me to understand creating on an intuitive basis, the involvement of our conscious and subconscious thought. With the exploration of self, the human condition is deeply rooted in my instinctive need to make. My main interest is creating a process in the present moment, mark making and the creative decisions made with no desire for a destination. Like I said, I believe there is more in the process than the final product, there is more in the journey rather than the destination. I think my main mission is to just keep learning, developing and exploring- I’d like to travel a little more and learn more in that respect too, I spent a lot of time traveling when I was younger, I have some wild experiences- but I’ve had a dog for the last ten years so the full on months on end nomading has been sacrificed by learning to be still for a while, getting more work experience under the belt and also the responsibility of my old lady bat, Shiva.
WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?
I think because I don’t know any different, it’s intrinsically built in me to create, it’s second nature. There is an endless fascination with searching for something, with ritual, method and repetition and in storytelling/folklore. I feel that through tattooing and illustration; there are more boundaries, it is more controlled, methodic and planned, I can apply myself in that way to fully hyper fixate and focus, which is therapeutic for me.
I am fascinated by the process of one human transaction to another within ritual and tradition of a craft that holds thousands of years of history, however with painting and my personal practise and through the act of making music in the moment through layering sound - there is more room for ‘play’ with the goal being ambigious, there is a space I hold that is a moment in time, in the present moment and I think being in that is almost meditative, especially when I am playing music- there is something so guttural about the voice, I love layering sounds and sometimes when I have finished my practise sessions, which can happen spontaneously as most times I write spontaneously, its almost a sense of relief afterwards, like I have said what I needed to say and got it out, I feel like music is a universal language, we all get it.
WHAT ARE YOUR CORE VALUES FOR YOU AND YOUR BRAND?
PROCESS, GROWTH, RELEASE & INSTINCTUAL MAKING.
WHAT FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS DO YOU HAVE, WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?
I would say my beliefs in terms of politically steer on the more anarchist side of things with a sprinkle of socialism in the respect that we need to allow for growth. The world has weighed on my shoulders since I was a kid; no war, no gods, no masters, other than our own selves.
I feel like in today’s culture we are all tearing each other apart and the big guys at the top must be loving how distracted we all are. We should be coming together more, uniting as humanity, learning from each other and allowing for mistakes because we are bloody human. Our system is undeniably flawed, we should rehabilitate better and more money really needs to be put into the mental health system.
I spent a lot of time around people with nothing and they make very little to no problems for themselves, us westerners seem to create a lot of issues for ourselves, and trust me I am no exception to this, I just think our perspective needs to shift a little sometimes.
I believe in a world where there is no war, no greed and gluttony for money, this hunger for more than and for false lifestyles and things that don’t matter at the end of it all, I am quite spiritual in the sense that I believe we are all here for our reasons, for our path to follow even if this journey is something so small, I think we are here as a lesson; we don’t take all this shit to the grave and it is one thing we all share in common, all we take when we leave this plane is our humanity and the lessons and experiences we have learnt, so nothing really matters, in the most beautifully profound kind of way, we’ve got to make the most of what we’ve got.
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.
