Strange Inviting Creatures
Emma Kidd, also known as benconservato, is an Italy-based artist who produces a strange and surreal style of animal-themed visuals, bringing unexpected friendships to life with her earthy, spirit-like forms. As a print-making graduate, Kidd has mastered watercolor, metallic sculpture, and textiles, sometimes in combination, to interpret the strange, ethereal creatures.
My visual style is not precise, ghost-like, bit Art Brut I guess. It will probably evolve more as I grow older, but it seems to be sticking. It comes naturally; I guess that's how you know "you've found it".
A strange marriage of Moomin-esque shapes and intrepid gloomy darkness make a truly stunning aura. Earthy colors are a defining factor in Kidd’s work, where a range of mossy greens, earthy browns, and slate greys create a raw and organic feeling sometimes accompanied by a subtle touch of pastel pinks, reds, and blues.
Kidd has been awarded a one-year studio residency at Creative Space in Freshwater, NSW, in 2019, where she further developed her strange, intriguing creatures. After various jobs in graphic design, and her travels across the globe, plus her adventures in becoming a mother, Kidd feels she had rekindled her voice through painting.
I have, with this year being a bit nuts, scaled-down again to making one-off articulated creatures, kind of like my un-proportioned groupings of spirits/people. They are stretchy, limbs different lengths; it is kind of a challenge than just painting them straight. More brainpower is needed to make them look "the same".
Emma Kidd is currently using the quiet chaos of Coronavirus to settle down and elaborate on her one-of-a-kind animals. The varied works share a haunting theme, where juvenile figures meet something supernatural and strange.
