Hi I am Lily and apart from my love for all things bodily, I also have love for many other creative things. Such as, going to a good bakery and baking treats for myself as I have a very sweet tooth! Flowers are one of my favourite things in the world so particularly in the summer I will spend time visiting national trust properties and botanical gardens to see all the flowers. Day trips around the UK and city breaks across Europe is another passion of mine as I like to experience new places and different cultures. Over the past couple of years I have really gotten into dance music so I enjoy going to music events and festivals like Wilderness festival which is a super arty festival and is only down the road!

My art practice is all about the body and moments we experience the body in. In particular I concentrate on the moments of intimacy, desire, longing and tension which can be seen in the everyday. I believe focusing on these experiences can help us understand ourselves and others deeply.

During school I always had an interest in people so I would make many figurative pieces and realistic portraits. I developed a strong skill in tonal drawings and focused on this area during the end of my A Levels. I then decided to study fine art at university expecting to simply carry on with my drawings but going to art school completely changed my understanding of perceiving art and creating art. I found myself leaving the sketchbook mindset behind and started exploring the workshops that were available to me. I spent a lot of my time between the textiles and plaster workshop making pieces that combined different elements together. I started to find a passion for sculpture/soft sculpture because it added a textural dimension to my work and the area of intimacy. Through material exploration I would think about materials on a deeper level and be able to deconstruct them to then reconstruct something new. My interest for the body meant I became fascinated in materials that had a relation to it. For example, materials that had a close proximity to the body like hair, tights and plasters. Latex became a material I obsessed over due it its skin like qualities and decaying elements which could communicate the idea of intimate connection being temporary. I also started to use food like honey, sugar and salt to capture different emotions to my pieces. All of my pieces made over this duration emphasises the importance of process and the curiosity of touch.

One area of work I am bringing to this year Artweeks are my figurative sewing pieces that I began during my time studying. These pieces highlight multiple ideas surrounding intimacy. The process of stitch communicates the trace of a body, a building of a moment, and captures the tension found between these elements. The tearing of the figures reveals the concept that one has to be broken down in order to be built back up. They encourage desire and touch through their surfaces and ultimately disrupt the physical distance between the artwork and the audience, which in itself creates another level of intimacy.

I’m excited to be sharing these pieces with you at Kingfisher studio and gallery located in Crawley this May!