Cornish Makers
Image ©Holly J C Wilkinson
I’ve been in Cornwall for just over 4 years now and within that time I have met some talented makers and creative folk. When you’re within a creative environment like that of Falmouth and Cornwall there is an abundance of different kinds of disciplines and practices taking place. From painters, illustrators, crafty types and makers. I thought I would share some of the work of these people as I think it’s so important to share with each other your creative inspirations and have a continuous dialogue with other creatives around you. The ladies I’m going to talk about all have a multidisciplinary approach to making that I think makes each of their practices engaging.
Megan Jordan
Meg Jordan is a maker whose main practice rages from textile, woodwork and mixed media craft. It’s her interest in combining different materials that makes her work engaging. An exploration of how these various materials can be combined to create tactile objects of intrigue, filled with patterns and made with care and understanding of each material.
Some of my favourite pieces of Meg’s are her wooden pieces where she has stitched intricate patterns onto the surface. It’s important to note how she is taking traditional, craft skills and manipulating these and applying them in a variety of ways to surface and function. I think this exploration is so interesting, the opposition of function and just work to look at. The physicality of her work is shown through the process of making and attention to finer details.
Joanna Lillie
Joanna is an illustrator maker whose application of material and how she translates her ideas into these mediums is really engaging. Her creative language is fluid and she is able to translate this visual code to a variety of materials, some of my favourites being her clay structures and colour work.
This is something that as a creative I am trying to hone, I think it’s great to be experimental but when I make, I think I lose a sense of myself with each process and at times it can feel disconnected. Joanna’s clay work is small and intimate and each detail is painted with care. Each mark is immediate too and adds to the character of what she is depicting.
Find out more about Joanna:
Jasmine Mills
Jas’s work is currently in a transition stage where she is letting the work direct her influences. She’s currently working on the context of her work which I think when your work is more ambiguous and fleeting is important. There is only so much intuition you can use before it runs dry. I think as an artist she has a good balance between the making and thinking but within that trusting when a painting is resolved.
She is a painter who makes bold colour choices but through experimentation and refining has found a way of making this work. She has repetitive elements in her work that I think are important to note, certain marks and ambiguous landscapes that make an appearance keep the viewer intertwined with her narratives
Catherine Vallely
Cat is another illustrator maker whose experimental approach to material to create her inquisitive characters is something I’ve not seen in a while. Her making and drawing is again very physical but she is selective in how she combines these elements to create compositions that engage the handmade and hand drawn.
She uses found organic matter so create wonderful and unique characters, giving dead plants and found objects a new lease of life. These tactile qualities add warmth to her work and narratives.
