Rachel Parker: Art that inspires

Emperor

Emperor

Artist: Karen Nicol

I find Karen Nicol’s mixed media embroideries inspirational for so many reasons, not least because she bridges the gap between textile artist and designer so effortlessly. She has a very impressive list of clients from both the worlds of fashion and interiors, as well as working on bespoke commissions for private clients. Her embroidery pieces are truly fascinating to me, and I long to see them up close! Karen creates ‘couture creatures’ using a variety of materials to hand. The beauty of these pieces is in the textural layering and detail, they’re a visual feast for the eye.

I actually came across Karen’s work when I was writing about collecting for my dissertation. In a fascinating interview with TextileArtist.org she describes herself as collecting materials “in a magpie manner, anything that inspires either in shape or quality or texture or technique.” I love the idea of surrounding myself with beautiful or intriguing ‘things’ and seeing what ideas are sparked from them, or how they might be included in my work somehow.

In an interview in Mollie Makes in 2013, Karen says that the best piece of advice she ever had was simply, “Look, look and look”. It’s so easy to stop doing that without realising! These embroidery pieces are so rich and opulent, and are a testament to how completely Karen lives by that piece of advice.

The Parakeet and the Mermaid

The Parakeet and the Mermaid

Artist: Henri Matisse
Year: 1952
Materials used: Cut paper collage. Gouache on paper, cut and pasted, and charcoal on white paper
Notable exhibitions: Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs, Tate Modern, April-September 2014

The vibrant collage works of Henri Matisse are instantly recognisable for their energetic use of colour and organic, free-flowing shapes. His work is full of life and vitality, which is an amazing thing given that he created them towards the end of his life, unable to stand and with the help of assistants.

The volume of work he created in such a short time is also pretty impressive and serves as a very effective motivator! When I look at a Matisse collage I’m reminded of that sense of urgency, of getting an idea out into the world and then moving on to the next one. There’s something about the method of collage on a large scale, of physically cutting into the material and in effect drawing with the scissors which means the shape really is the product of that particular moment in time.

I was lucky enough to visit The Musee Matisse in Cimiez in 2013 which I’d highly recommend to anyone with a love of colour. My memory is of wide open spaces, bright, clean light and saturated hues. The scale of the pieces is truly incredible. The Parakeet and the Mermaid has been described as a ‘blossoming indoor garden’ which captures it beautifully – the shapes seem to bloom and grow as you look at them. They’re both raw and elegant at the same time. I always think of that particular blue as a ‘Matisse blue’, and I can’t think of any other artist who owns a colour in that way.

Nicola

Nicola

Artist: Maurizio Anzeri
Year: 2011
Materials used: Embroidery on photograph
Size of piece: 23 x 17 cm

Maurizio Anzeri works directly onto found photographs, obscuring, transforming and embellishing through embroidery. Sometimes he adds to the image by creating elaborate headpieces or jewellery, or he might create eclectic spiralling shapes that seem to give us a glimpse at what the person’s really thinking behind that formal portrait façade; sometimes he uses dense areas of stitch to almost completely obliterate the subject, almost in the same way as you might scrub out someones face with a sharpie, but carefully, in a very deliberate and considered way and with the added menace of the needle.

I find his work both uplifting and unsettling. Firstly, there’s the sadness that I always feel when looking through a box of old photos in charity shops and thrift stores, and the inevitable unanswered questions. I imagine these photos once held pride of place in ornate frames in family homes, now discarded and forgotten, a token of a distant past. The artist invents new narratives for these people, recasting them in a contemporary light. The original identity of these figures has already been lost, so perhaps he alludes to who they could have been. The act of masking the face also raises questions surrounding tradition and cultural identity, transporting the figure to a different point in time.

His use of colour and geometric shapes often gives the images a slightly alien or futuristic quality, as if the thoughts and emotions of the captured figures are an unstoppable force bubbling over – a hybrid of old and new.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Artist: Eric Carle
Year: 1969

I love children’s books, so this list of inspiring art wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the work of one of my favourite artist illustrators, Eric Carle. Of course we’re all familiar with the timeless classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (which I fell in love with all over again when reading it to my niece many years ago). The collage illustrations are so bold and vibrant; like Matisse they are full of energy and life, but with a greater emphasis on texture and layering.

When I was younger I used to be quite obsessed with copying pictures from my favourite books, and I had a go with painting on tissue paper and recreating some of Eric Carle’s pictures. I loved the technique and the way that the delicate paper becomes strengthened by the paint whilst retaining some of its translucency. Carle paints onto tissue paper using a variety of brushes and tools, which he then files into drawers by colour to create a pallette to work with.

I just love the idea of colour organised neatly! Without really realising it, I’ve begun to work more and more in this kind of way – building up a library of drawings, marks and textures to use for future designs. I tend to then scan these marks and play with them on photoshop, cutting, cropping, layering; digital collage I suppose. I hadn’t made that connection before…

Well there you have it, five pieces of art that currently inspire me. It was insanely difficult to narrow it down to five, but I’ve found it really interesting to think it through. The fact that three out of the five are collage artists is quite revealing, and has actually helped clarify the direction that my work’s going in. Ask me again next year!

For more information visit: www.rachelparkerdesigns.co.uk

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