MELANIE BERESFORD ON WHEN I GROW UP SERIES

When I Grow Up...  Series

As a child, I had a very active imagination. With both parents in the arts, I can’t say I was discouraged in fact the opposite was true. I spoke to imaginary friends, swapped between playing the role of mother and child with my friends in the playground, collected dead insects and gave them a proper memorial and believed I could be whoever I wanted to be. From becoming a fire fighter, I settled on being an artist in my early years and have continued to pursue this dream every day since.

Inspired by these early roots, this project captures a sense of how endless the possibilities are for so many children. Having spent the last few years surrounded by my friends’ children and those I’ve taught, these little people surprise me with their uninhibited imagination. When asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, I received responses that were quite evidently from their lips. As remarkable as some sounded, there were as well the simple answers that took me aback. From seeing themselves as a future pilot, ballerina, chemist or pirate, to being tall and riding trains, or to simply being a boy, a car or a flower, as of course only a child believes they can be; these future predictions filled me with joy and inspiration.

The works that have been borne out of these conversations have evolved over the last several months, as I’ve engaged more and more with literature on the concept of childhood as well as the children themselves. My early works are simpler in nature as I captured elements that a child might physically play with, such as toy planes that could have been the original agent spurring on their dreams. These were drawn alongside each pensive child using pencil on MDF.

The latest works have more of a dream-like quality to them, as I’ve drawn upon the luminosity and waviness naturally found in plywood. Superimposed on landscape scenes echoing future lives, the figures in these works recede in out and out of focus; highlighting something of the possibility of dreams coming true.

Melanie Beresford 2015

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