How would you see yourself as an artist?
I would say I am a printmaker and the core of my work is print-making but I also fall under sculpture and installation. I feel I can’t really go wrong because I have a toe in each pool.
What ideas or themes do you look at in your work?
There is an underlying theory of Psychogeography which can be defined roughly as the point where your emotions correspond to a landscape. Those particular landscapes in the prints in my exhibition would be the areas where I feel the strongest, most at peace.
There has been a lot of trauma in my home life, and it hasn’t been the happiest of places at times, so when I do get to escape to a new landscape, I find a sense of peace. I find particular landscapes very soothing. So not only is there a personal connection to landscapes, there is the theory of Psychogeography more generally, which is an underlying theory in my work.
What about your artwork using tea bags?
I came about using teabags as a means to find something to print on. The University didn’t have much of a budget in my final year so we had to find a way to supply materials. I would use a lot of delicate paper because I don’t like using paper that is quite hard.
It actually came to me when I was drinking a cup of tea and I started to think that they might be able to be used for my art. I think drinking tea is more than just a drink. It is used as something which is part of a social interaction, something that can soothe, it can help you calm down.
You are offered a cup of tea when you visit people, when you go to a funeral, when you attend a meeting. There is something about the offering and drinking a cup of tea which is more than just about the tea itself, it offers a sense of comfort.
How did you go about preparing the tea bags?
I would cut them open, empty them out using a small paintbrush, and make sure that one side was kept intact for the images to go on. They are all printed upon, using Cyanotype printing techniques I described before, and the images are all the photographs that I use and they become part of a narrative in a way. And it fits well into my general practice.
The tea bag installation was part of my degree show, and then Arcade Gallery asked me to show the tea bag piece in their gallery.
There is one thing about the tea bag piece is that to create an installation, each tea bag is put up one by one and they are pinned to a wall, so there is no way you can put them up the same way, in the same place, each time. So each work is a unique installation. I do love that about this piece of work.
Are you able to earn a living as an artist?
I can’t quite support myself as an artist just yet, but I am only just out of college a few months ago. Everything I earn through my work goes back into my work. I have my own Dark Box, I created that myself, I used a really huge cardboard box, cut a hole in the top and put a big black sheet over it. I have to order Cyanide off the internet, not the easiest thing. But I have my dyes and my UV light, everything that I need to keep working at the moment.
Where to now?
I am going to be doing a residency in the University of Ulster in September, I will the resident Print-Maker there. I will be helping out the technicians, but it also goes to helping me get a qualification which is equivalent to a teaching qualification. I also want to do a Master’s Degree; I have my heart set on that. I would like to be a working artist but I do think you have to have a Plan B and if teaching might be part of that.
