“It’s the people you meet at University which I find is the most important part of the university experience whether its tutors and technicians or friends who I will forever remain in contact with and collaborate with in the future.”
Hi Noah, hi Beth – please tell us a bit about your work and your influences
Noah:” I think for the both of us we are illustrators who enjoy analogue processes, what’s exciting about working with physical mediums but also working with other’s is that there is an inherent sense of play, I enjoy that back and forth dialogue with work whether its communicating ideas with someone or responding to the way something has sat on the page. When it comes to the way I work I’ve always been quite rooted in printmaking especially relief printing such as linocut but more recently rubber stamping.
“Through my time at University I’ve come to understand one of the reasons I love printmaking with my work is that I am very interested in the idea of repetition something which relates to the themes I am interested in; that’s why stamping has been great as not only has it been a process I could do at home but it has let me do more prints and play with repeat imagery far easier than other print processes. When I tackle individual projects I love exploring ideas of iconic characters and pop culture especially through the lens of nostalgia and postmodernism. When it comes to influences I have so many recently I’ve been very inspired by the work of John Broadley, Stephen Fowler, The Chicago Imagists but most importantly Beth as we collaborate together.”
Beth: “For myself my practice is influenced by process therefore is fluid depending on the mediums that I want to explore, more recently I am enjoying collage which is something I have explored before but have wanted to return to. I enjoy collage for its unpredictability and playfulness something which embodies my mindset as an artist. The relationship of shape and colour is often explored with my practice which makes it quite the exciting endeavour.
“Simultaneously I am inspired by storytelling and poetry and been looking into exploring that through children’s books. This year I feel like I am growing to understand myself as a creative practitioner , whilst has been helped by looking at artists such as Paul Cox, Eric Carle, Spike Milligan which is only scratching the surface. I found that these artists prioritise play in their work which I find very inspiring and last but not least Noah has been an inspiration throughout my time at University both as an illustrator but also someone to collaborate with.”
How have you found your course and your time at Brighton?
Noah: “I have really enjoyed my time university, It’s been an invaluable experience. It’s the people you meet at University which I find is the most important part of the university experience whether its tutors and technicians or friends who I will forever remain in contact with and collaborate with in the future. Being surrounded by other creatives has been important to improving my practice. I’ve always been someone who loves the studio and will be in there using the facilities as much as possible so it was really enjoyable to be able go back since spring and I have been up in the print studios constantly since then.”
Beth: “Having the access to the studio’s and facilities has been really valuable to me and influencing the way I work. Having access to facilities such as letterpress and bookbinding has been great for opening my perspective to how I work, and even just having a shared studio space to sit and work in is important and I wouldn’t have maybe explored without entering University.”
How did you choose your course – why did you choose to study illustration?
Noah: “I’ve always been drawing throughout my whole life but it was only during my time at college did I know it was illustration I want to before that I was going to pursue something more in the sciences but that wasn’t me, doing illustration has been liking turning on a light switch to my happiness and ambition. I’ve been lucky in the fact my parents work within illustration so when I made my decision to pursue it they were very supportive. Whilst not the most exciting answer my decision was just an instinct built on an urge to draw.”
Beth: “Similar to Noah I’ve been creating and drawing my whole life. It wasn’t clear to me that illustration was something I wanted to pursue until a couple of years ago, before that I was pursuing film but my heart was more in drawing. It was quite the jump to doing illustration as before my quick decision to change drawing and creating had been more of a hobby. In that sense I feel very new to Illustration but that’s exciting to me because I know I have so much more to explore and enjoy with it.”
What are your plans after graduation?
Noah: “Through the workshop we did myself and Beth are now creating a collective called ‘Pencil Pot Club’. We enjoyed collaborating so much, it made sense to not leave it with just the two workshops. Collaborating will also allow us to inspire each other and remain creative post Uni especially in this transitional period between Uni and careers. For our collaboration we want to work on creating a package of workshops which we could do across the UK with universities and Museums. For my own work I’m hoping I could go freelance and am working on building my portfolio and work to pursue that and also look into doing an MA in printmaking. Very long term I would like to go into university teaching but for now I want to build myself up as artist within my new collective, for the immediate future we are building our identity for Pencil Pot Club.”
Beth: “To elaborate on what Noah said, we are both focused on developing more workshop ideas to add to our new website which is also ongoing at the moment. For my own work I am currently building up my portfolio that is geared to children’s book illustration which I hope to then study an MA in, in the next few years. My long term goal is to also going into university teaching and creating the workshops is a great springboard into that.”
Find out more at pencilpotclub.com
Follow @bethizattt on Instagram
