Unraveling and reweaving

For World Art Day, I’m reflecting on how studying Fine Art undid what I thought I knew about creativity, only to weave it back together in far more beautiful, messy, and meaningful ways.

Victoria Hall, 2025. Sketching landscapes en plein air in The Cotswolds, England.

When I started studying Fine Art at Curtin University, I thought creativity meant producing things that were pleasing. You know, perfectly composed, colour-balanced, a bit smugly symmetrical. I used to think inspiration came from the outside. The right playlist, a moody sky, or a well known masterpiece.

Then I started actually studying Fine Art. Within weeks, my tidy ideas collapsed like a poorly built papier-mâché sculpture. Suddenly, “making something nice” felt irrelevant. What mattered was paying attention. Paying attention to my chipped tea cup, my morning walk through the woods with my dog, a half-heard conversation at the cafe, the quiet ache of an ordinary Tuesday.

I realised that inspiration doesn’t live in grand gestures or immaculate studios. It’s in the messy middle of my very real life. It’s the dog hair caught in the paint, the contents of a forgotten drawer, the way light hits my kitchen sink at 4 p.m. That’s where the good stuff hides. The honest, unfiltered, deeply human stuff.

And when I started making from that place, the work stopped being decorative and started being alive. It told the truth. Sometimes it’s awkward or imperfect, but so are we — and that’s really the point of art.

So this World Art Day, don’t worry about creating something beautiful. Just look closer at your own life. Sketch it, write it, photograph it, feel it. Because the world doesn’t need more perfect art — it needs more real art, unravelled, re-woven and crafted by hand.

X Victoria

About Victoria Hall

Victoria Hall is an English-born, Australian-based writer, artist and illustrator. She is the creator of three picture books for children, Penny Prickles at Coogee Beach, Eggy Peggy Has Lost Her Leggy and The Fairy Beasts.

Victoria has studied Fine Art and Illustration at Curtin University and Sydney University, as well as Business at The University of West London.

For more updates on Victoria’s creative projects, follow her on Instagram or check out her bio here.