Artist Biography

Esther Chiyanda, born 1994 and raised in relatively small city of Manzini in Swaziland, where she didn’t feel like she quite fit in with the conservative norms.

Esther remembers little of her childhood, with her mother who left in her early formative years. She spent most of her young life having been raised by her strict immigrant father, who for the most part was loving. Growing up in an environment where self discovery and creative exploration was not encouraged, Esther found that her need for artistic development consequently grew.

Her artistic interest was cultivated during her teenage years and developed further after the passing of both her parents in 2009 while she was living and studying (high school) in South Africa. While it was a trying time, it only served to draw her closer to a love for freedom through honest expression.

After high school she went on to study graphic design in Swaziland where she didn’t quite feel like she fit in either. Though she didn’t stay long, the experience kindled and inflamed a deep love to create her own approach in pencil, charcoal and acrylic mediums. This tool became a means of dealing with her life experiences and a new and exciting way to connect to the world and the people in it. She’s curious about feelings, emotions and the human condition as it reacts to intimate portrayals of vulnerability. She most often than not is self-referential and draws strongly on the wild organic, free forms from the natural world in her own sketches and paintings.

The abstraction of dreams and physicality of reality meet through feeling.

--Esther Chiyanda

Artist Statement

Star Art is primarily reflective of feelings surrounding hope and despair whilst simultaneously exploring the essence and beauty in vulnerability through figurative art. My artistic process is sometimes accompanied by a play between sensual and natural nudity. I have an intense interest in exploring the human condition in it’s ability to feel complex emotions birthed through an individuals backgrounds and how experiences shape our narrative.

These expressive works are realized through my preference for acrylics-mainly for its immediacy. In addition, I utilize charcoal and graphite for the atmosphere they help to create in my artwork. I would regard my personal style as unfiltered, organic and hopelessly romantic, it has been described as a dark.

My inspirations stem concurrently from nature in all its sacred glory, and my own intensely felt emotions. From this, I hope to ignite and inspire an appreciation for emotional honesty, self-realization and to move some people.

Creating art is a way to remain honest with myself.

--Unknown