Traces of Yesterday: Capturing Nostalgia Through Art and Craft

Traces of Yesterday: Capturing Nostalgia Through Art and Craft

‘It’s almost like my hands know what I’m thinking before I do. Other times I know exactly what I want to express but I struggle to think of a way to express it in art.‘

– Which art form would you say you are most comfortable with as you seem to dabble in a few different ones?

It’s definitely changed over time – had you asked me a few years ago I would have said portraiture or painting but more recently I have rediscovered my love for miniature making. As a child I would make miniature animals and groceries for my doll’s house and I would collect anything tiny – erasers, Sylvanian Families, marbles. Throughout the years I have dipped in and out of miniature making and it’s always the art form that provides me with the most comfort.

At thirteen I set up an Etsy shop and sold my polymer clay creations. I spent all of my spare time sculpting with polymer clay and finishing commissions whilst watching Gilmore Girls, miniature making was so relaxing for me and it’s through both making and selling these tiny sculptures that I gained confidence as an artist.

But at this time, I considered it more of a hobby – most of the galleries and exhibitions I’d been to were full of huge paintings and large scale installations and I thought to really make it as an artist you would have to paint, draw or make ginormous sculptures. I eventually turned to portraiture and taught myself how to draw photo-realistically but I felt like my drawings lacked a voice and although I could copy from a reference, I found it very difficult to express myself and my ideas in pencil.

I’ve always found it much easier to think in 3D, perhaps because I’ve been making these miniatures my whole life, and so throughout my studies at university (I study Fine Art at UAL), I’ve developed the confidence to exhibit my miniatures and take them seriously.
I also enjoy bringing my miniatures to life with stop motion animation, it almost feels magical to watch the final project – it feels like you’ve stepped into that childhood dream of wanting your toys to come to life. I actually first started stop-motion animating with Lego, so that’s pretty apt!

– Of all the ways in which you express yourself, which one do you immerse yourself in the most?

My miniatures are very time-consuming and so I have to sit with the work for a long time and this gives me a lot of space to explore and question why I’m making the work. Often when I start making, I’m not entirely sure what it is I am trying to say but I know what I need to make and the idea reveals itself alongside the work. It’s almost like my hands know what I’m thinking before I do.
Other times I know exactly what I want to express but I struggle to think of a way to express it in art.

During these times I always find it best to step away from the idea and create something else in the meantime – the solution will often pop into my head when I least expect it, during a lecture or whilst talking with my friends.

The relief of those lightbulb moments is unmatched, and I immediately write down the idea in my Notes app – a lot of my art projects begin from thoughts and prose jotted down on my phone or in a notebook. Writing is something I really enjoy – I love how instantaneous it can be compared to miniature making.
I also take great joy in experimenting with clothes and piecing together outfits, I think it’s such a fun way to express yourself, although nine times out of ten you’ll find me in my painting dungarees.

– You had an exhibit in February, would you like to speak about it?

I had a few exhibitions in February – it was a very busy month! I was very honoured to have been invited to take part in ‘A Brush with the Past’ at the Wimbledon Museum. It was a group exhibition of ten contemporary artists and we all created a piece of art inspired by one of the historical paintings from the museum’s collection. I hadn’t painted in a while and it was really lovely to paint a place that I’ve been to so many times, and then to see my own painting hanging next to the painting that inspired it was really special.
I also took part in an end-of-module show at university. I presented a test-run of what I plan to make for my Degree Show (the final exhibition of my course) and I made some of the smallest miniatures I’ve ever made. I learnt so much from this test-run and I’m so glad I did it – I’ve even changed the medium I plan on working with. I attempted to build the miniatures from watercolour paper but found myself quite limited in the level of detail and texture I could achieve and so I’ve decided to make the final work from polymer clay. It feels quite fitting to be making this final piece from the very first material I ever worked with.
At another exhibition, ‘Sleepless Night’ at Central Saint Martins, I presented a collaborative piece of work that I made with my artist friend Gold Kim. I created a miniature in response to her short film, ‘About L’. Using the film as a starting point allowed me to explore ideas I wouldn’t have arisen from my own practice – Kim’s film explores the experience of moving to London and being away from home.

– What is your head space like when you’re itching to create something new?

It really does feel like an ‘itch’! It feels like a sort of pull towards my desk and whatever it is I want to make will end up filling up most of my brain space until I figure out how to bring it to life. Having a new idea for a project feels like a sudden surge of excitement and motivation, especially if you’ve had artist block for a while. There’s a real sense of fulfillment when you finally finish the work but it can be quite easy to forget to take a moment to enjoy what you’ve made or feel proud of it because you immediately want to move onto the next project. Recently, I’ve been involved in a few exhibitions and I think they’ve been really wonderful because they’ve forced me to take a moment and reflect on all of the work I’ve been making.

– So, you have a inkling to make something, how do you pick a medium to express that?

I try to pick a medium that best suits the idea I’m trying to convey. A lot of my work centres around nostalgia and ideas of home and for these concepts I usually turn to miniature making – I think the fact I started miniature making as a child makes it feel perfect for this.
Sometimes I’ll finish a piece of work, and it won’t feel ‘right’, it won’t convey the feeling that I wanted it to and so I’ll remake it in a different medium. A lot of my stop motions started as very simple, digitally drawn animations – they didn’t feel like they had enough depth to them and so I remade them as physical animations. On the other hand, occasionally I’ll make a set for a stop motion and think it works better as a stand-alone miniature and so I won’t actually film the stop motion. It also depends on what medium I’m enjoying the most at the time – I go through phases of drawing, animating, miniature making and painting. I really enjoy switching between mediums and find that it helps me to stay motivated.

– What hobby did you pick up first and why did you do so?

Art was my first hobby – I shared a plastic easel with my sister and we had matching red aprons. A lot of our home videos are of us at the easel mixing colours and making handprint ‘masterpieces’. At some point I must’ve decided my paintings had graduated from the easel and I drew on the back of the sofa (sorry mum and dad.)

I also loved animals and wanted to be a zookeeper and so I’d fill notebook after notebook with drawings of monkeys, zebras and giraffes, surrounding them with facts and creating my own animal encyclopedias. I vividly remember sitting at the dining room table and getting my dad to show me how to draw a horse. Once I’d learnt, I drew them on everything.

My mum also loves miniatures, and she was the one who introduced me to polymer clay. She’d made some tiny food items from polymer clay when she was younger and had held onto them and so, when I was five or six, we tried to recreate them together. We made ice cream sundaes, oranges and endless cakes and I put them inside my doll’s house. I still have both the cakes we made together and the ones she made when she was a child.

I think my love for art was definitely passed down to me from my parents. I now work at an art club for children and I hope I can now pass some of my love for art on to others.

– What is it that you have inside you that you want to communicate through so many mediums?

I find art to be such a great way of connecting with people. I love sharing my art online and it always surprises me that so many people will connect so emotionally with a ten-second stop motion. It’s really heart-warming and makes you feel understood. I always try to use my corner of the internet to spread joy and happiness and so I often use my stop motions and miniatures to appreciate the little things (literally). I want to make people’s days a little brighter with my art.

– How has living away from home shaped your work?

I actually still live at home – I’m in my third year of university (I graduate in July!) and so I’ve lived in the same place my whole life. I think that’s why a lot of my work looks at home and nostalgia. It’s an interesting experience to be an adult in the same place as you were a child – to walk past the same park and not have the same desire to jump on the swings, to walk past the school you’re no longer a pupil at, to see people you used to know so well but only half recognize now. I’m currently working on my final piece for my Degree Show at uni and it explores how places hold memories and what happens to those memories when those places no longer exist. I’m remaking a lot of the places I remember so clearly from my childhood in miniature.

-Last but not least, do you think the glass is half full, half empty, or just twice as big as needed?

I’d normally say half full, I like to try and see the good in everything and if something goes wrong especially art-wise, I’ll try and see it as a learning curve, chalking it up to experience but I like the idea of it being twice as big as needed – you have what you need to be happy with room left over for any bonuses!

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