Portrait by Shane Parent — *Portrait by* *Shane Parent*

About the Artist

Amanda Wand is an Abstract Artist, Art Teacher, and Creative Team Building Facilitator in Toronto, Canada. She has her BA in Sociology with a minor in Visual Arts from Western University. She has been making intuitive, gestural and colorful abstract paintings for over 16 years and has exhibited in group shows at galleries in New York City, Toronto, and online. She is currently represented by Kefi Art Gallery.

Amanda has over 10 years of experience in developing and delivering creative leadership workshops and speeches to over 200,000 people globally. She loves working with people and thrives in coaching and mentoring others. She is currently an Art Teacher and creates engaging art lessons for youth and adults that foster artistic and leadership skill development. She intentionally creates classes and courses that encourage artists to find their own unique voice, continue to improve on their practice, and build confidence in themselves as an artist.

Amanda excels in people management, creative program development and relationship building. As a highly skilled training and development consultant she is able to customize team building programming to deliver dynamic and bonding experiences for companies and teams.

Artist STATEMENT

Amanda's artwork can be defined as a vulnerability in colour. As an empath, her work is heavily influenced by how people treat themselves and others. It explores concepts of connectivity, identity, and self-worth. Her artwork is uniquely honest and as an intuitive painter, she surrenders to her flow and creates what she needs to feel. Amanda uses bright colours, and large strokes varying between softness and elements of texture in her creations to explain universal feelings that sometimes cannot be expressed with words. She is inspired by light reflections, nature, and vivid colour. Her work represents a range of emotions that she invites viewers to observe abstractly and feel intuitively.

If you're interested in workshops, art classes or project collaborations please reach out at amanda@amandawand.com