Vanessa is a French-Canadian archaeologist and artist living abroad (currently in Beijing, China). She considers herself an Art Witch as every offering she creates is a spell of sorts, a way to inspire herself and others to bring more ritual and magic into their lives through art. Most of her work is process-based as she believes that that is where the magic happens! Her handle 'Dans mon crane' means 'in my skull' in French and is both a reference to her interests as an archaeologist and a nod to where her inspiration comes from. Vanessa is a firm believer in the power of community and strives to create spaces where others who share this belief can come together to discuss and support each other in this way. Her interests intersect around tarot, storytelling, archetypes and art making. She explores these in community on her Patreon and through her art journaling classes.

Patreon ★ Substack ★ Instagram

What does Art is Magic mean to you? 

Art is Magic is both a mantra and a wonderful space to come together in community. The idea that art is magic is at the center of my practice. After all, I claim the title of Art Witch! All of my art has to do with magical workings even when it is just to work through things in my journal. Then, there is Art is Magic, this wonderful community! I love that there is a space for us to come together, learn from each other and explore all the possibilities that creating art can offer.

What does your creative Practice look like?

My art practice is rooted in ritual. I almost always come to my art table because I have something to work through, some emotion to process. The joy of having a process based art practice is that the result -whether aesthetic or not - is less important than what happens within us as we are creating. My go to method is collage, I love the act of cutting and pasting layers of images to create new meaning. I also enjoy expressing myself with watercolor, drawing, and documenting travels.

What sort of creative walls do you hit? 

I hit creative walls when my space becomes overwhelming because I have too much stuff or I haven't put things away from the previous art session. If I feel I don't know where a type of material is, I get frustrated when I have to interrupt my flow to go search for it.

What do you do to move through them?

What helps me move through this is going through my studio and putting things in their spaces. I like having a minimum of structure to help me keep track of the materials I want to use. I also try and purge some of my collage fodder every 6 months so that I know what I have and pass along whatever doesn't feel right anymore. I also love to make kits where I gather mixed media materials in a limited color palette to help me connect to the aesthetic of a project and streamline it. It helps me reduce overwhelm to be able to dip into a curated set of images and colors.