Monica Busch: The artist who thought she couldn’t paint

It all started with an impulse to paint. In 2016, Monica Busch was walking past an art store in her home town of Stjørdal, Norway. She had always been creative, but her inner critic told her she couldn’t paint. On this day, however, a painting in the window caught her attention, and she went inside. The store offered courses in painting, and Busch signed up.

“It gave me a feeling of accomplishment, joy and positivity,” Busch says of her first beginners-course in painting. “I thought, this is fun, this is something I can continue doing.” So, she took more courses, honing her skills. Her first works were exhibited in Stjørdal in 2017. “As I continued painting, the creative joy and creative power just exploded, which has led me to discover my own imagery and to develop my very distinctive, personal expression.”

Busch has recently returned from an exhibition in Copenhagen, but that was not her first time showing her art abroad. She has had exhibitions in New York, USA and Bremen, Germany, in addition to her home town. But her creative flow extends beyond just painting; she also writes poems.

“Something more came through”

“The writing just came out of the blue. I opened up to one thing, and then something more came through,” Busch says, explaining how painting lead to poetry. Nature is an important inspiration in Busch’s art. “For me, it’s about being out in nature, being present and meditating. I use that as a driving force to give space in my life to create,” she says. “I work very intuitively. I follow the impulses I get and respond to them.”

She finds a great deal of personal joy in painting, but she wants her work to mean something to the viewer as well. “My goal with my art is for it to convey everything from the inner lives of people to the power of the universe,” says Busch. “I want the paintings to move you emotionally and in a deep and philosophical way, so you can look at yourself and your inner self at the boundary between soul, time and space.”

Currently, she is working on a book of poetry and art, while creating new paintings for another exhibition in Bremen in 2023.

Web: www.monicart.no
Facebook: MonicaBuschArt