Spotlight on SYSWC Member - Alba

First, thank you Alba for agreeing to be interviewed!

The purpose is to provide you with an opportunity to share your story with confidence and to inspire others to pursue their creative passions. Let’s go!

Tell us a bit about you

I am Alba Jover and I am a Spanish nurse living in the United Kingdom. I am currently working in Watford, but apart from being a little freak of nursing, I enjoy so much everything related to human expression. I am concretely more into abstract art but I enjoy everything that makes me feel something.

I have been travelling and one of the things I enjoy the most is to be part of the culture as a native person “to enjoy it from the inside”. My mother tongue is Catalan as well as Spanish but I am also able to communicate in English. About my relationship with Italian and French: we can define it as steadily in process.

Reading, writing and positive thinking are the pillars of SYSWC. How much are they a part of your everyday life?

I enjoy so much reading, but surprisingly, just in English. I discovered the pleasure of reading a tiny bit late, when I was already in England trying to study English in an interactive way. I personally fancy “psychological” books, which make me question myself and potentially broaden my mind towards an unlimited world of imagination and personal growth.

About writing, I have never been good at it but now, I am using it in an abstract way. In order to give an explanation or sense to the artwork I produce, I use some metaphors and written tools to express what my personal perception and expression was when I was creating it.

Personally, I strongly feel that the positive thinking is the base of everything, it is important occasionally to turn off your ego which wants to obsessively control everything and accept what life brings to us as an opportunity to grow and expand ourselves, even if it comes from a bad situation.

I just came back from Copenhagen and something I learnt and became important for me was the word Hygge  which means “try to find a little space in the day to have a bit of happiness”, like to light a candle and relax, or to have a laugh with your best friend… it is a really astonishing term that just exists in Danish and cannot be translated.

You are a creative - tell us about one of the creative projects you are working on now.

I like to work on my painting and drawings when I have some spare time after my exhausting nursing days. I like to use whatever comes to my mind as a source of inspiration and creation. I am currently working on a topic I find quite interesting and which can be approached from different perspectives and point of views.  It is called “Struggles of the time” and with that, I try to create a mixture of how time can be understood and how it affect us as human beings.

I have a central artwork which I created some time ago with a massive personal significance (that is probably why it is the central one), and from there I am trying to dig deeper into every single aspect to understand what the main creation represents. So that, with lines, textures and shadows I try to represent the three main areas that builds a human being. The social, psychological and physical aspect, stepping in every period of human development: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and the old age.

Where does your inspiration/drive to be creative come from?

I do not really know where it comes from, but I think was a way I acquire since I was young to channel whatever happened to me and just express it. That is why my humble interpretation of art is all about emotions, expressing and feeling whenever you create or admire an artwork.

I would say, as I said before, the emotions are my essential inspiration because for me they are the motor of the world. Although, I have to say I become a sponge when I am in my travels or I have an important human interaction.

What skills do you still need/want to gain in order to share your story with (more) confidence?

I have never studied art, practiced any skill nor had any teacher who guided me. I would love to learn the “technical part of the art” as well as maybe know a tiny bit more about its history.

I think it is an important part to be able to create in a more mature and formal way, but not indispensable due to the fact that art has no limits, you are just free to express yourself.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I just want to thank every person and project that helps to motivate people to carry on in what they like to do and make them believe with themselves.

Where can we find you on social media?

I have been using my profile Instagram to publish my work @albajoverribes but I just came back from a travel where I had some interesting circumstances from where I decided to go one step further and there we go, I created my “artistic account” on Instagram: @daggrystimer26. I am still working on it but at least I can say the origin of the name touched my heart. It means Alba in Danish used by Pipilotti Rist in one of his contemporary artworks exhibited in Aros museum at Aarhus, Denmark.

Thank you, Alba!

If you feel like Alba is a kindred spirit, that you have so much to express but are not sure where or how to express it, then why not join our supportive online community – Share Your Story With Confidence Facebook group.  We share and comment on interesting articles, run reading and writing challenges to help you boost your confidence and organise activities that shine a spotlight on your creative work.

We are small, but we are fierce!