Amy is a Fine Art student, currently in her third year at Edinburgh College of Art, with an HND in Art & Design from Glasgow Kelvin College. Her work centres around her excitement for many different materials, from painting and drawing to collage and printmaking. Amy’s variety of different working methods help her to find new and unique ways to express her inspirations in her work. Amy’s work and inspirations bloom from her family and friends, who she surrounds herself with, and are boosted by her love for travel, especially to Nashville, home of country music! Amy’s work is filled with bright, expressive colours which stem from her exciting inspirations and passion to create work, even when she isn’t sure what this work should be. She is currently working to show the importance of ‘comfort with ambiguity,’ and strives to create this sense of comfort in her work.

See Amy’s work as part of our annual autumn open call exhibition, Future/Past, featuring a sublime collection of works by twenty six artists inspired by ancestral echoes and future visions; pieces that dismantle tradition, reimagine narratives, and linger in the margins of the radical, the oneiric, and the everyday.

Hi Amy! Can you tell us how you overcome creative blocks?
‘Just draw.’ That’s what I say to myself when I’m stuck in a creative block and it’s what I’d say to anyone who is. I completely understand that this sounds so much easier said than done but it can be that easy: look up and draw what you see; got something in your head, put pen to paper and see what happens. Nothing has to be perfect; nothing ever will be but it’s doing it that matters. When I stick to this mindset, I find myself getting out of my own head and back in the world of creating. If this doesn’t work, which I find can happen if I’ve gone through a particularly busy time for example – end of semester deadlines, creating portfolios and final pieces – at this point I encourage myself to take a step away. I take time to collect, observe, and feel like I’ve got a chance to experience things. If I’m lucky, this might be something like traveling, but it might just be going out for lunch somewhere new, where I might come cross something along my way that sparks new ideas or even my next sketch. I often find it’s something as simple as a vase of flowers that catches my eye, and I want to take a picture of. This usually tells me I should draw it or draw my version of it.

How has your practice changed over time?
Over time, my practice has changed from trying to create the ‘right’ kind of art, to creating the art I want to create because its right for me. High school tied me too much to perfection, and what was said to be right and wrong, although I do need to give it some credit since it was where my artistic journey started! Whereas college started to open my eye to some of the endless possibilities art holds, from expressive sketches and abstract collages to printmaking; something out with my usual pen and paper. College and art school so far have led me to see the importance of all aspects of each artists art, for me that’s the expressive sketchbook work right through to falling in love with printmaking in all its kinds: drypoint, screen printing, tetra pack – I’ll try it all if you let me!

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your artwork?I hope people feel a sense of comfort when they see my work, even if they don’t know why and question why. I hope they get the chance to take a minute and see that it’s alright not to know or not to understand. Sometimes that’s when the best things happen. For me that can be when my best work is created. I hope people aren’t intimidated by my work whether through its size or style, instead I hope people can see my work more like a time-lapse of decisions and lucky chances mixing together to make this finished piece of trust, uncertainty, and passion.

Are there specific advantages or challenges associated with working in your chosen mediums? Have you experimented with other mediums or techniques?
This work is made on a large piece of canvas, which brought challenges of its own. Before creating this work, I’d never worked on this scale before so found I was learning a lot as I was going and struggled with some of the simple things such as getting it hung in a big enough space in my studio to work on it comfortably. This canvas is covered in gel plate prints, which were made using one gel printing plate and acrylic paints. One of the challenges I came across when working with gel plates was understanding that no print was going to look the same. I was happy with the variety of outcomes, but I originally found it difficult to make the piece look fluid as one big piece, not multiple individual prints on one canvas. I limited myself to only using primary colours to get the colour I was looking for, meaning that each refresh of paint on the gel plate ended up a slightly different shade and a different amount of paint each time. Some had a thinner layer, meaning you could see the white base layer, some had more paint and spread out with the gel plate when printing. 

Previous to making this final piece I experimented with smaller pieces of canvas and printed onto them, experimenting with different primers for the canvas and gel plate prints. Most of my experimentation for this piece came when trying to decide what colour I wanted to use. Becoming more stressed and overwhelmed with this decision, I decided I wanted something that made me feel calm, and for me, it was purple.

Which artists inspire you? Are there non-artistic influences such as literature or music that impact your work?.
As a massive country music fan, I always find this inspiration coming through somewhere in my work. Sometimes it comes in visually, other times it comes through in the motivation it gives me to create my work. My biggest inspiration is Tenille Townes, a Canadian country music singer based in Nashville (the home of country music). Tenille creates a sense of home in her music. She makes me feel seen, not only with her music but with the way she presents herself, as an artist and as who she is outside of her music. I admire the drive she has and the time and effort she puts into her work, something I aim to do for my practice. She showed me that even the smallest truths can lead to strong connections.

Will your next project be a continuation of your current style or are you experimenting with something different? Can you share a glimpse of your next project?
Seeing the outcome of this piece and understanding that this result came from a lot of trial and error as well as just doing and not overthinking, my aim for my next project is to take this mind set with me. My aim is to keep creating, even when I’m not sure what I want to do because this can create the most interesting and genuine work.

As I’m very early on in my next project, this makes for a lot of sketchbook work to start, from quick, expressive sketches to working with the uncertainty of watercolours or graphite power to create interesting studies. My aim is to keep creating, give myself a large body of work to develop on as I move further through this project.

Connect with Amy on Instagram. Future/Past runs at Six Foot Gallery until Tuesday 14th October.