WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?

A little town in Cumbria, North West England.  It’s surrounded by fields and distant mountains with just one high street and a factory at the heart of it.

WHERE IS HOME NOW? WHERE HAS HOME BEEN?

I moved to Liverpool to study Fine Art and graduated last year but I decided to stay here and move in with my partner, Rory, who was on the same course as me.



WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?


Too much and not enough! I’ve been making branding content for Voxi in the form of 10 second animations. But I miss the tactile elements of my practice and can’t wait to get back in a studio and make completely useless objects again. Me and Rory work collaboratively as ‘Snarl’ and were awarded a 6-month residency at The Royal Standard when we graduated, so in February we will finally gain access to a studio again. The space will function as a public gallery, with an exhibition being held each month as well as a costumed life-drawing workshop.


WHAT DOES ART DO FOR YOU?

I guess it’s my consistent sense of purpose. When I’m inspired I see a million little futures in front of me, each with the potential to take life on a different tangent and this is overwhelmingly exciting. I find being human very intense, and in that sense it’s therapeutic to take your experience of the world and envision it as a useless object, or a painting or whatever else, and to then ascribe meaning and purpose to that scaled down embodiment of your world. It’s taking absurdity and turning it into something you recognise and find comfort in; something tactile and real.

Everything, probably. I’ve found that I can’t function without it. A psychiatrist once told me I needed love, and I guess they were right. I still struggle with the whole self-love thing, but I’m in love with someone else and couldn’t value our relationship any more than I do. Rory’s pushed me to be the person/artist I am now, and never fails to motivate me when I can’t see the point in persisting. On another level, I need to fall in love with my processes when I’m working: I need to get into a flow where I slightly lose consciousness and get lost in the motions of making.




CITE THREE FEMALE  ARTISTS  YOU ADMIRE.

Louise Bourgeois, Maria Lassnig, and Eva Hesse.




A BOOK?

I think I’ve always been impacted more by isolated quotes than books themselves. Here’s a quote from The End of the Tour, which is technically a movie about a writer:

“I don't know if you have any experience with this kind of thing. But it's worse than any kind of physical injury. It may be in the old days what was known as a spiritual crisis: feeling as though every axiom in your life turned out to be false... and there was actually nothing. And that you were nothing. And that it's all a delusion and you're so much better than everybody 'cause you can see how this is just a delusion, and you're so much worse because you can't fucking function.”




CITE SOME SONGS THAT WOULD BE ON YOUR FAVORITE PLAYLIST?

<sup>Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

About Today – The National

Yes I’m Changing – Tame Impala

Sign of the Times – Harry Styles

What a Feeling (Flashdance) – Irene Cara</sup>




HOW DO YOU THINK SOCIAL MEDIA IS CHANGING THE ART WORLD? DO YOU THINK IT’S BECOME A USEFUL TOOL FOR ARTISTS?

It’s expanding the art world and giving more people access to it, creating a powerful platform where people have a fairer chance at succeeding publicly than they would if the art world still functioned as it did ten years ago. It can be a great tool for self-reflection and I think it’s vital that artists use it in this way if they’re to maintain an authentic and self-aware practice.        
         




WHAT KIND OF THINGS WOULD EXIST IN YOUR IDEAL UTOPIA?

It’s hard to imagine a utopia when you’re heading for dystopia, but from my lived experience I reckon it would be a hybrid of Norway’s beauty and Berlin’s creative and ambitious energy.


What does it feel like to be a creative?

Relentless! There’s no start or end point to creativity so it’s a constant battle to feel fulfilled.


Looking back at past work, how has your practice changed over time?

I‘m still exploring the same themes and feelings that I was when I first started making art, but I’ve definitely injected some hopeful positivity in the form of humour. There’s a quote that goes something like “humour is tragedy plus love” and it’s really ingrained in my head. I think that’s the biggest difference: I’ve kept the tragic themes but injected them with love and relatability.



How do you go about starting a new piece?

I think I work best when I’m not trying, because that’s when the work is most authentic. Often, I will look through old sketchbooks and find doodles that I’ve previously discarded as being crap, and I realise it’s better and more honest than the work I class as being ‘finished’.


What creative medium would you like to experiment with but haven’t yet?

So many! I really want a sewing machine so I can start making clothes and textile pieces. It would be amazing to try one of those rug-making tools too (I have no idea what they’re called). I also want to get into film photography. I basically want to try everything that I haven’t yet, and that means everything that’s costly to access.