Nicholas Crooks

Nicholas Crooks grew up with his three siblings in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, experiencing as a child an “exquisite dialogue” while making marks with paint. His parents were actively involved in artistic pursuits and Nick grew up in an environment that encouraged self-expression not only through the arts, but also through science and the practice of architecture. While a boy, Nick came to realise that artistic expression was his most truthful communication. Now aged 47, he believes that his life’s journey has been one of values. As a child, Nick’s modus operandi lay in instant sensory gratification — but he grew to follow order and structure. Later in life, he found that he could accumulate wealth by respecting these boundaries — but eventually saw this way of life as too confining. After studying art at the Durban Technikon but then departing from this field to own and run his own business for more than 20 years — all the while painting when time allowed — Nick is now studying towards his post-graduate diploma in fine art at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg. While an entrepreneur, he came to realise the importance of his own dialogue and and the value behind it. This led to the full-time pursuit of visual art as the next stage of his journey. Nick now sees himself as “behaving appropriately in an appropriate context, the context changing all the time”. He believes that his artistic pursuits enable him to “hear the background noise” — what goes into making our true selves. His dialogue with the world is transformed into a dialogue with himself when he paints. He sees painting as an extension of his dialogue with the world. It allows him to hear the background noise.

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