What are the main concerns of your practice?

My work falls under the category of ‘painting in the expanded field’. I believe there is more that can be done with paint outside of the traditional canvas. I explore this by taking my favourite components of painting; colour and pattern and combine these with the medium of textiles.

My way of mixing these mediums is by dip dying fabric in watered down acrylic paint, which I sew together to form patchwork paintings. These patchworks contain multiple fabrics that interfere with the colour and pattern of the patchwork. Sometimes this interference also occurs naturally through folding or layering over patterns that are already there. In some pieces, there are also occasions where I create my own colourful patterns to interrupt.

 

 

 

 

What are your influences?

Along with the fabrics themselves, influence would definitely be colour! I like to experiment with what colours and fabrics work well together. I am also constantly researching artists that experiment with the idea of painting by placing the various components of painting into other mediums. One of the artists I find most influential at the moment is Polly Apfelbaum.

 

 

 

What is the first thing you do in your process?

Preliminary sketches are really important to me, but sometimes I also like to select samples of different colour and place them together to test out what things look like straight away. You can’t always predict which fabrics happen to work well together. These experiments are usually where the process begins.

 

What do you enjoy most about the studio?

There’s definitely an atmosphere. There’s an encouraging feeling whenever I come in to get messy and not have to worry about it. The space I have here allows that.

 

How has your work changed over the course of your degree?

A lot! It’s changed a lot. I kind of dabbled in a lot of different things throughout the years, and I think it took me a while to figure out what it was that I actually liked doing. I think it was important to have experimented in these ways for the 3 years I’ve had here, as a way of finding out what kind of work I really wanted to make. It’s not until this final year when you start to really question what the concerns of your work are, and feel confident in that.

 

What are your plans after graduation?

After graduation, I plan to spend a year travelling. In September, I am volunteering in Tanzania with ICS and Raleigh International on a water and sanitation project. This project enables me to spend 3 months living with a family in rural Tanzania and helping improve the local communities access to clean water and their understanding of the importance of hygiene. By the end of this gap year, I hope to have finalised my decision as to whether to continue my studies and enrol on an MA, or whether to go down the career path.