Bio
Ilona Cutts was born in Helsinki, Finland to a diplomatic family who took her on a lifelong journey around the world, Argentina, Poland, the U.K, Mexico, Spain, the USA. 25yrs of her life she spent in Mexico which she says had the biggest impact on her life and career as an artist.
While traveling to many exotic and exciting places might seem like an attractive lifestyle to some, she explains that she felt lonely as a child having to say goodbye to her friends when it was time to move on again. So as not to feel alone, she chose drawing and painting as her traveling companions. Magical beings began inhabiting her mind and on canvas, creating a parallel world she calls "Enchanting World", and it speaks through her.
Ilona’s paintings center on, anthropomorphic creatures or girl like figures, surrounded by nature or objects of obscure symbolic and ethereal meaning. Influenced by contemporary pop culture and Spirit energies, her narrative storytelling is both cute and cruel, at times disclosing her own personal views on the delicate relationship between man and spirit nature.
Ilona: “My biggest artistic and intuitive influence in my life has been my Mother. Her love for nature taught me how to observe and see. Her love for antiques and old artifacts taught me how to feel energies, and translate them into painting. Our home was filled with art and antiques collected from our journeys all over the world. I could feel their energy around me, as if they spoke through me. They have been and still are a triggering force behind my intuitive inspiration. I am still drawn to them and through intuition I find myself investigating, the invisible and the unknown.”
Ilona studied at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, England and has a B.A in Fine Arts from Kankanpää Art School, in Finland (1995).
She now lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, with her husband and their 13 year old Shar Pei.
-Ilona Cutts
