Artist Ariella Ilona Horvath lives by the motto, “Always forward never back”. “The idea essentially is that we’re always moving towards something, and if you fail from something, you still learn from it...if you don’t try, you can’t move forward,” says Horvath.

Originally from Georgetown, Guyana, Horvath moved to Vancouver with her family at a young age, and even then, she knew it was her destiny to pursue a career in the arts. 

Given Horvath’s constant desire to move forward, it’s not surprising that she hasn’t limited herself to one medium. While she works as a graphic designer, she also does photography, editorial styling, and fashion design. For a time, she also played the violin and piano through The Royal Conservatory of Music and even dabbled in music production while in university.

Growing up experimenting with different art forms and media has turned Horvath into the multi-disciplinary artist she is today.  “As a generalist, you have to choose something and stick with it for a bit, and then once you’re like, I feel like I’ve mastered this…you’re like, okay let me try something else. Let me add on to the skillset I have. It’s building blocks. You have to start with something that you know that you can master.”

This year, Horvath used her motto in her latest project, Always Forward Never Back, with co-creative director and good friend Sandile Magadlela. The striking visual journey combines video, photography, and fashion design that was inspired by a dress. “It seemed like a really cool, unique vision and theme for me to create a dress and then shoot somebody of colour in the outdoors,” says Horvath.

Horvath's ethereal bright green dress almost looks like it’s floating among the calming muted tones of the forest backdrop in this video and photography series. The images evoke a sense of hope: “We wanted to come into 2021 and put out some work that was very elegant, very clean, but also said, we had a tough year and we made it through…always forward never back!”

Embracing her creativity was initially a challenge for Horvath during last year’s lockdown. Eventually, she found inspiration within the walls of her home. She came up with the concept to combine several images of her roommate posing in various positions to transpose into one photo. 

“That [idea] really came from a myriad of things. I was like, I haven’t done any shoots, haven’t had a creative outlet in a while, what can I do in my basement, in my house with people that are in my bubble? [I was] thinking outside of the box while being stuck in a box. Literally,” she laughs.

Not even a pandemic will stop Horvath from getting her creative juices flowing. As a Christian, she believes that she’s been given a purpose to create: “There’s beauty in God’s creation in and around us and in everything that we have…you can get inspiration from anything. Sometimes it’s a walk down the street. Sometimes it’s something somebody said to you. Sometimes it’s like the tiniest detail on a photo on Instagram that you zoom into. Sometimes it’s an outfit you saw. And you’re like, oh I like that, let me create something out of this...there’s always artistry wherever you go,” says Horvath.

Typically, Horvath gravitates towards bright colours and interesting patterns to get inspired in her styling and editorial work. But recently, she expanded her skill set by exploring the marriage of unique skin textures, fabrics, and textiles carefully characterized by harsh sunlight in her photography series BLACK TEXTURE. “Each shoot meant something very personal to me, and it was almost based on how I was feeling in the month,” recalls Horvath.

Central to Horvath’s work is collaborating with people in the BIPOC community: “I like to work with people of colour…there [also] aren’t many black female photographers in Vancouver. So, it’s nice to be like, hey I’m a black female artist in Vancouver. Let me represent the community in a really strong, positive, beautiful way.”

Whether Horvath is styling a photoshoot with eye-popping colour, shooting a model to reveal their true essence, or collaborating with people in her community, she’s always following her instincts. Staying true to her motto and giving herself the grace to take chances is what makes her artistry shine.

Follow Ariella Ilona Horvath on Instagram and check out her website.