Molly Russon

We are really getting into summer now..

We have a brand new Full Artist Feature by talented Illustration Molly Russon! Keep Reading to find out more…

Q1: What is your Name, Age, and Where are you based?

I’m Molly Russon, I’m 22 and I’m an illustrator based in London.

Q2: How did you first get into your creative practice/ work?

A: I’ve always been interested in art and I think just had it in my head that art was what I was going to do. My mum is an artist, so I grew up drawing and painting, but I think I wanted to Illustration when I realised that working with lots of different clients means you can work on so many different sorts of projects. I’m one of those people that wants to do everything, so the fact illustration gets used in so many ways really appeals to me!

Q3: Are there any main or overarching themes you explore in your work?

A: I don’t really purposefully have themes in my work, but I always want to make work that kind of points at maybe the mundane, ordinary or the stuff we take for granted, and says ‘ah, that’s a weird/beautiful/funny thing’.

I also really love history and want to do more work telling stories about people from the past and how they lived their lives as it really interests me. I’ve done a few projects looking at figures from the past. My book about Alfred Wallis which looked at his work but also his battle with mental health, and also the LGBT lives of the Bloomsbury Group. Often the stories that don’t get told interest me a lot.

Q4: How has the COVID- 19 Pandemic affected your work?

A: Lockdown has allowed it to just be me and my work, and that has been really good. I think because I’m quite good at comparing my work to others, having this time to just focus a bit more has been great. Also being forced to get into a good routine and work out how to work from home- as that would be the situation for me Covid or no Covid- has been really useful in setting myself up for being a freelancer after uni!

Q5: Highlight one of your biggest inspirations!

A: I suppose I kind of have to say Alfred Wallis. I’m obsessed with him. Then I wrote about his work and life and that got worse. He’s a folk artist – so completely untrained – and he just communicates his love, obsession, knowledge and concern for the sea and boats in a way that I don’t think any trained artist could. It’s that translation of passion and a point of view into art, that I would love to be able to do. For it to come completely from someone’s heart and to be able to feel that as another person is amazing to me, and often kind of dampened by training a lot of the time. It’s very rare to find trained artists that are able to do that.

Q6: Where can you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

A: I don’t know really. Part of me wants to just sing the lyrics to the Noah and the Whale song as a response instead ! I do have things I’d like to do though. I’d liked to have worked on illustration jobs for magazines or publications by then. That’s one place I’d like to see my illustrations. I also would like to have maybe written or illustrated another book? Ive got a few ideas so maybe by then I would have decided which one to do. I also love the idea of working with other people such as writers on collaborative projects. Also ceramics, I hope I get access to doing that again soon. Apart from that in five years I’d like to maybe have a studio space somewhere!

Q7: If you could share a message with the world, what would it be?

A: I think probably just be compassionate. To others and especially to yourself. How you treat yourself will help your interactions with others. Respect yourself. Don’t beat yourself up. Give yourself time to learn and grow. Listen to yourself. Once you’re doing all that for yourself you can do all that for others. So everyone should start there.

You can find more of molly’s GORGE art work on her Instagram! And also her Website https://www.mollyrusson.com

-THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING-

-STAY SAFE KIDS-

Emily Coulson

We are proud to feature another creative today from North Norfolk, where the Orange Peel is based!

Keep reading to find out more about Emily, her artwork+ Lino Printing!

Q1: What is your Name, Age, and Where are you based?

A: My name is Emily Coulson, I’m 21 and currently living in North Norfolk, (while searching for a house in central Norwich).

Q2: How did you first get into your creative practice/ work?

A: I started carving Lino Prints towards the end of my A-levels in 2017, then forgot about Lino printing for much of my first year of Uni. I started again during the summer between 1st and 2nd year of university after I realised I had been working mostly digitally during 1st year, and this was just not fun to me. Lino printing was something that allowed me to enjoy the process as well as the result. This has become really central to any work I produce – there has to be some hand-made element of unpredictability o surprise to the result, which there almost always is with Lino.

Q3: Are there any main or overarching themes you explore in your work?

A: Increasingly my work explores+practices sustainability (:the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level. And avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.) I have a recycling bin in my studio that isn’t really even a recycling bin as I dip in to it for materials to collage with. Or I use my misprints/ notes etc and then shred them to create packaging filler. I’ve recently been trying to make new paper out of the old scraps too. It has become a fun challenge for me to create work from the old, because I don’t see simply throwing anything out as an option anymore. As for the work I actually create, I almost always look to the past for the imagery I like to produce. Objects that are made with good craftmanship, a story behind them, things that are one-offs, unique. I prefer to look to the past, before the era of plastic mass production!

Q4: How has the COVID- 19 Pandemic affected your work?

A: Prior to Covid-19, I was working 5 days a week in a restaurant, then squeezing in making things either in the early hours of the morning or the other 2 days a week. Since lockdown started though I do feel like I’ve had the most productive 3 months of my life… I’ve been able to focus on my practice, how I want to create work, without any other disruptions whatsoever. It’s kind of been like having a years’ worth of personal creative growth crammed into 3 months!

Q5: Highlight one of your biggest inspirations!

A: One of my favourite artists/ printmakers is Eric Ravilious. His way of creating ‘pure pattern’ within his watercolour paintings is something that I completely adore. Ravilious had this ability to include so much pattern within one work, but make it so that the whole piece is still beautifully balanced. The same goes for his woodblock engravings, so many shapes and patterns within one piece but the compositions are so well thought out that it works wonderfully.

Q6: Where can you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

A: I’d ideally like to be a freelance Illustrator, without a part time job by then! I’d hope to have really consolidated the way I want to work, and then be in a place to manage creating both work for myself to sell, and creating work for clients. I would really like to do something to help others like myself, starting a career in the creative industry. Teaching Lino print classes maybe? Or mentoring a local creative? I don’t know, but it’s definitely something I’d like to be doing by 5 years into the future, so I can give something back to the creative community.

Q7: If you could share a message with the world, what would it be?

A: Right now I’d say… Please do your research before you buy things – everything and anything! No fast fashion! Re-use and recycle! Buy second hand! OR buy it independent! Spend that little bit more money to make a small business grow AND get something that will actually last you a lifetime and means something!

Everyone knows the drill by now…To find more of Emilys work and support her you can go to he Instagram! Where you will also be able to find her Etsy store!

-SEE YOU AGAIN SOON-

Eden Waters

This weeks Artist Feature is with young creative Eden Waters!

Her work covers everything from Pointillism illustrations of animals and sausage rolls to the issue of Classism in art- if interested keep reading…

Q1: What is your Name, Age, and Where are you based?

Im Eden, I’m 23 and I’m based between Birmingham and Norfolk at the moment after finishing uni in Birmingham

Q2: How did you first get into your creative practice/ work?

My main areas of practice are pointillism drawing and publication making. I am completely self taught at drawing and developed my practice (outside of drawing) whilst at university. I’ve always had odd aesthetic preferences, which I think were shaped by not being directed by school or anyone else. I like things that are perceived to be a bit crap and I am usually drawn to things that go unnoticed – it’s important to me to be curious about mundane things, and invite these things to be praised.

In uni I discovered a love for self-made publications and zines, and spend a lot of time making and planning them for documenting just about anything!

Q3: Are there any main or overarching themes you explore in your work?

I like my work to have an underlying importance. My work can be fun, or strange, but the foundation of it is often the most important part. Working with found objects is an important part of my practice.

My final major project surrounded Classism and exclusivity in the arts, and I have also previously focussed on the impacts of sexism, food wastage, and I am always inspired by the normality and hidden politics around me.

Q4: How has the COVID- 19 Pandemic affected your work?

As my surroundings are one of my biggest influences, it’s been really interesting to see the world close down, change, and re-emerge… and of course I’ve been planning publications!

Q5: Highlight one of your biggest inspirations!

Honestly, it’s just life. It sounds like a cop-out answer but really, there is something beneficial to be taken from everything we experience.

Q6: Where can you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

I haven’t given it much thought, that is one downside to taking things as they come. However I would love to still be involved with artist publications, and like the idea of encouraging others to create them too.

Q7: If you could share a message with the world, what would it be?

In general – It’s okay to be unsure.

In terms of artistic practice – Even if your practice seems to be uncommon, it doesn’t mean you’re doing things wrong or your work is bad; your audience will come. Make as much as you can, even if it seems to be going nowhere because you will find something great. Be curious!

**The Nation’s Favourite pointilism drawing is part of my FMP for university.**

This Arcadia quote is an extract from my FMP book (which is on my online degree show https://baaad.org/portfolios/eden-waters/ )

To check out more of Eden’s work follow her Instagram @edenwtrs !

And you can also see her University FMP on Classism in the Online degree show… https://baaad.org/portfolios/eden-waters/

-THANKYOU FOR READING GANG-